The Future Business Leaders of America team attended the National Leadership Conference in Chicago, IL, this past summer. 18 of the 38 qualified members of the team were accompanied by two teachers. They flew out at the end of June and traveled back at the beginning of July.

Every year FBLA holds a National Leadership Conference, and although it’s a conference, it is also a competition for members. Participants get to attend workshops, presentations by keynote speakers, and events of the competition requiring qualification. 

“FBLA has over 70 plus different types of competitive events from business law, testing events, accounting, they have intro to public speaking, and speech events” Mr. Saunders, one of the teachers that accompanied students on the trip, said.

Students at the competition create a strong bond together throughout the trip and competition. They learn how to communicate and work together, bringing out the best in one another. Members create an unbreakable and unforgettable bond through events and time spent together. Events involve presenting in front of a crowd to cheering on part of the team in a final event.

“I had a group of three,” Saunders said. “They were in a presentation event, their Seven Lakes name got called, and all my kids are super excited. So they run towards the stage. I had a couple people place earlier in the evening, but I was sitting by myself with the other teachers because all of the students went down to the stage to cheer them on for the very final event.” 

The Seven Lakes team had the highest placement out of the Katy teams at the conference. The hardest competition for the team state-wise was California and Georgia. Both California and Georgia had some of the largest FBLA teams at the competition and were able to enter many events. Other Katy schools in attendance did place in final events, but our team had placed more than the others. 

“I saw it as an opportunity to gain some experience that I couldn’t gain in a regular high school setting,” Keiko Cheung, a senior in FBLA, said. “I wanted to challenge myself and the people that competed in the same event as us.”