On February 22, University High School (UHS) hosted the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Southern Section Leadership Conference. During the Leadership Conference, at which 655 FBLA members from twenty four schools in Southern California attended. Of the attendees, 34 UHS students qualified for the state competition. UHS earned the second largest total number of points in all of the competing events together, winning second in the Sweepstakes Competition.
Mrs. Shannon Lenert (Math Dept.), advisor of UHS FBLA, said, “As UNI does not have courses in these areas, our students study the topics on their own, which is one reason that I am so impressed with their success. Our students exhibit a high standard of professionalism and leadership.”
During a conference, each attendee competes in one or two events, which test business-related subjects, including marketing, book-keeping and technology. Events can be objective tests, presentations, and/or pre-submitted projects. Students who place in the top five in their event qualify to compete at the state-level.
Annually at the Southern Section Leadership Conference, students campaign for positions on the Southern Section Officer Team. Four of the eight-person Officer Team elected for 2014-2015 are UHS students: Spencer Ma (Jr.) is elected the President, George Hu (Jr.) Vice President of Membership and Grace Xu (Jr.) and Megha Torpurni (So.) Leadership Associates. Grace Xu said, “This year at the Southern Section Leadership Conference, I ran for Southern Section office. Just going up to strangers and telling them about your platform can be awkward at first, and it’s always nerve racking to make a speech in front of 700 peers, but I could not be more excited to serve on Southern Section board, and it was an amazing learning experience!”
The following UHS students will be advancing to the state level of FBLA: Albert Xu (Jr.), Calvin Wan (Jr.), Michelle Chen (Jr.), Ashley Kwon (Jr.), Alexander Chang (Jr.), Lisa Chen (So.), Romit Gupta (Sr.), Vicki Chen (Fr.), Benjamin Sui (Fr.), Nancy Wu (Fr.), Isabelle Zhou (Fr.), Yiling Kao (So.), Sahil Lamba (Sr.), Alex Dao (Jr.), Devshi Mehrotra (Jr.), Nikhil Mehrotra (Jr.), Jessica Baek (Jr.), Jennifer Huang (Jr.), Ailin Kang (Jr.), Jason Lao (Fr.), Dylan Hong (Jr.), George Hu (Jr.), Jerin Tomy (Jr.), Jein Park (So.), Krishna Reddy (Jr.), Megha Torpunuri (So.), Leianna Chin (Jr.), Biyonka Liang (Jr.), Albert Tung(Jr.), Lydia Wang (Jr.), Grace Xu (Jr.), Marvin Shu (Sr.).
Written by KRUTHI REDUCHINTALA
Staff Writer