PHOTO BY MATT NAGLE

Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Peninsula Region Vice President Jessica Colburn, and members Brent Hansen and Sukhbir Randhawa returned to Fife High invigorated by their accomplishments at the FBLA regional conference Feb. 5.

FBLA students shine in Bremerton

23 Fife High students take awards at regional conference

By Matt Nagle

The membership of Fife High School’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) did their school proud at the FBLA Peninsula Regional Conferences Feb. 5. Their advisors, Laura Hilzendeger, business and marketing teacher at Fife High, and Christiann Thomas, chair of the business and marketing department, escorted 33 FBLA members from Fife High School to the event. The adults were as excited as the students and rightly so. This was Fife’s moment to shine, and that they did. Twenty-three of Fife’s FBLA members were welcomed onstage to receive 30 awards with nine taking first place.

Thomas noted that FLBA allows students to have an “authentic” experience where they are given the opportunity to perform in a variety of competitions that connect school and business together.

“Our students proved that they are excellent assets to the business community and that they are working hard to develop the qualities necessary in becoming responsible business leaders,” she said. “The awards they received affirm their hard work and dedication to developing their business skills.”

Jessica Colburn, FBLA Peninsula Region vice president and a junior at Fife High, planned the conference with advisors, her first time to do so. She welcomed everyone at the opening session, closed the conference and in between was busy with behind-the-scenes duties that kept the conference running smoothly.

Colburn took second place in the Emerging Business Issues competition with two of her fellow students from the junior class, Tierney Kuhn and JunHo Lee. They want to do even better at the state conference. “For all of us this was our first time to do [this category] so as juniors we have one more year to beat that,” Colburn said.

Colburn said she is very pleased with how the conference went. “It was a great turnout of all the schools that came,” she said. The Kitsap Conference Center and Hampton Suites in Bremerton, where the conference was held, was buzzing with more than 340 students from 15 different schools. Colburn said she noticed a fun sort of spirit in the air, which showed in the packed karaoke room where the students gathered to socialize and blow off a little steam. “It was the highlight of the conference,” Colburn laughed. “It just shows that the students really enjoyed the whole experience. It was good to see that.”

This was senior Brent Hansen’s first regional conference as a new FBLA member. He participated in three events with classmates Sam Raveendran and Fred San Nicolas, and the trio placed in two of them, Global Business and Entrepreneurship. Both categories involved taking a 100-question test and being tasked with creating a business solution to a posed scenario in a very short amount of time.

“This is definitely something that will help my future,” Hansen said. Once he graduates from Fife High this spring, Hansen said he plans to attend the University of Washington to study business.

Sukhbir Randhawa, a senior, took first place in Impromptu Speaking. She has been an FBLA member for three years. She said she thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of impromptu speaking on a subject she had little time to prepare for. “It brings out the best in you. It shows what you’re really made of, what your weaknesses are and what you need to work on,” she said.

Randhawa is graduating this year, then it is off to Paci-fic Lutheran University for her next learning adventure that will lead to her ultimate goal of being a surgeon. She took it upon herself to give moral support and guidance to other students this year more than she ever has and it made her feel like a million bucks. “Helping other people get their confidence level up helped mine too.”

Next up is the even bigger, and more challenging, state conference. Come April, the Fife High FBLA team will be back on the bus headed to Bellevue for this three-day state conference organized and produced by Colburn and a group of 13 other state officers. Close to 3,000 students from 50 schools are projected to attend.

“We are excited for state and look forward to a great showing,” Thomas said.

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