PHOTO BY LAURA HILZENDEGER

Awards in hand, Tierney Kuhn, JunHo Lee and Jessica Colburn (left to right) came home winners from Future Business Leaders of America’s 2008 National Leadership Conference in Atlanta.

Fife students place in top 10 at national conference

By Matt Nagle

Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) has a trio of champions at Fife High School. At FBLA’s 2008 National Leadership Conference in Atlanta, June 26-29, students Jessica Colburn, Tierney Kuhn and JunHo Lee placed 10th in the nation in Emerging Business Issues, each bringing home an engraved trophy.

“I am so proud of them and their accomplishment,” said their teacher and FBLA advisor Laura Hilzendeger. “We have a really amazing and talented group of kids at Fife (High School).”

In total, Washington entered 188 students in competition with 41 placing in the top 10 in various events. This year’s national conference yielded the biggest turnout ever.

With Hilzendeger as guide and mentor, the three spent the whole school year working to get to the nationals starting at the regional competition, where the Fife students placed second, then on to state competitions where they placed second again, which allowed them to advance to the nationals to compete against FBLA’s best of the best.

For their participation in Emerging Business Issues, Colburn, Lee and Kuhn were tasked with writing two speeches, one pro and one con, on the topic “Should the government regulate health care?” They first had to get through a preliminary round, and the flip of a coin determined whether the students would speak on the pro or con side so they had to be prepared on the spot to give either argument.

Facing off against 57 teams from across the country, the Fife students were required to give their “pro” speech in under five minutes before a panel of judges, then answer several questions.

The top 12 from this round then went on to the finals, and again a coin was tossed. This time the Fife competitors had to present their “con” side of the posed question to judges and an audience was allowed to sit in as well.

None of the Fife competitors said they were particularly nervous about giving their speech. Rather, they were excited, focused and determined as a team.

“It was great. It always is,” Kuhn said about the conference and FBLA competitions in general. She, along with Colburn and Lee, got involved with FBLA last year as sophomores and plan to stay in the organization until graduation in 2009.

In the meantime, though, there is still next year to compete. “At nationals, they were already trying to figure out what they’re going to compete in next year, so I have no doubt in my mind that if this group of three wants to go back next year to nationals, they’ll be back to nationals,” Hilzendeger said.

“I know they can do it again.”

“We’re all here thanks to her,” Lee said of Hilzendeger. Kuhn agreed. “She’s absolutely amazing,” she said, noting that Hilzendeger takes time to focus on individual students and takes a sincere interest in all of them. “She’s so

dedicated and focused,” Kuhn said.

As newly elected president of Washington State FBLA, Lee will be busy during the upcoming 2008-09 school year bringing new students into the organization as will Colburn, who is president of the Fife High School chapter.

“Getting corporate sponsor-ships is the biggest job I have right now,” Lee said.

Hilzendeger said she could not be happier with the current FLBA leadership at Fife High. “They have a lot of dedication and passion to want to succeed and excel in things they participate in. Whether it’s academics, athletics or extracurriculars, they’re dedicated to doing the best job they can do.”

Anyone wishing to help sponsor Fife High School’s FBLA should e-mail Lee at president08-09@wafbla.org.

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