FBLA Wins Awards at State

Six Students Will Go To Nationals in Anaheim, California

Meridian took 17 members along with the FBLA adviser Kathy Soukup to the State Leadership Conference in Omaha on April 2-4. Now having returned home, there is good news to share. Sending 17 students competing in six events each, Meridian was able to bring home three 1st place finishers, two 2nd place finishers, one 5th place finisher, and one 7th place finisher, along with eight honorable mentions. These are very impressive numbers considering Meridian competes with every class division of Nebraska, Class A-D2, which totals to be about 2,000 students. So, as you can probably see, it is very difficult to get to National FBLA, since you must finish either first or second. However, we have six national qualifiers this year. Taylor Johnson, Andrew Rohr, Dustin Rohr, first place in Business Plan; Jonah Jordening, second place in Computer Applications; Brooke Hofstetter, first place in Spreadsheet Applications; Andrew Rohr, second place in Spreadsheet Applications; Taylor Johnson, first place in Database Applications; Haley Dutton, seventh place in Database Applications. National qualifiers are only eligible to compete in one event at the national level. Andrew and Taylor are both competing in Business Plan. Haley earned a spot at competing at nationals because the other competitors were competing in a different event. Brandie Sykes earned a fifth place finish in Word Processing II. See chart for all Meridian winners.

Name	Event	No. of Contestants	Placing
Taylor Johnson Andrew Rohr Dustin Rohr	Business Plan – 4 Seasons Catering	15	1^st National Qualifier
Jonah Jordening Haley Dutton	Computer Applications	85	1^st National Qualifier Honorable Mention
Brooke Hofstetter Andrew Rohr	Spreadsheet Applications	58	1^st 2^nd National Qualifiers
Taylor Johnson Haley Dutton	Database Applications	19	1st National Qualifier 7th National Qualifier
Brandie Sykes Dustin Rohr Sydne Endorf	Word Processing II	118	5^th Honorable Mention Honorable Mention
Dustin Rohr	Sports Management	391	Honorable Mention
Allison Johnson	Keyboarding Knowledge	385	Honorable Mention
Dustin Rohr	Who’s Who in FBLA	40
Taylor Johnson	Public Speaking II	20	Honorable Mention
Brandie Sykes	Proofreading	426	Honorable Mention
Blake Bartels	Intro to Technology Concepts	150	Honorable Mention

National FBLA is June 23-29 in Anaheim, California. The Business Plan competitors, Andrew, Taylor, and Dustin, will present a power point presentation on their business, 4 Seasons Catering. Jonah, Brooke, and Haley will be testing in their competitive events. This trip will cost about $10,000 for the entire group. Therefore, please keep your eyes and ears open for any fundraising we will be doing. Free will donations will also be greatly appreciated. Or if you need help with any odd job, please consider talking to one of the qualifiers or Mrs. Soukup about it as we are looking for any way to make money for the trip.

Our FBLA organization has also just finished up sponsoring a clothing drive. A pick-up load was taken to the Blue Valley Community Action in Hebron. Thank you for all your donations. Other activities to finish out the year include FBLA Awards Night, officer induction, and Adopt-A-Highway, where we pick up litter along Highway 4. Even though the school year is winding down, our national qualifiers are still preparing for nationals and will appreciate the support of everyone.