The Lakeland Regional High School chapter of FBLA reached new heights between March 10-12, 2025. at the State Leadership Conference in Atlantic City, seeing multiple people rank for states and one person qualify for the National Leadership Conference
How did the State Leadership Conference Go ?
(Courtesy of Lakeland FBLA) (Courtesy of Lakeland FBLA)
With junior Taylor Severs, senior Emily Kebrdle, and senior Eva Bodnar-Whetstone ranking in the top ten, as well as junior Aaditya Patel ranking in the top four for states, the trip was very successful for LRHS. Patel will be advancing to nationals in Anaheim, California at the end of June.
The trip began with every state qualifier waking up at the hellish time of 4:30 to 5:00 a.m. on Sunday for a 5:30 bus ride to Harrah’s in Atlantic City, reaching the hotel at around 8:30 a.m.
Nothing really happened on Sunday, as many of the schools wouldn’t arrive at Harrah’s until Monday, so most of the day was spent organizing the hotel rooms as well as having the opportunity to explore the hotel before it became packed with the members of other FBLA chapters.
On Monday, as mentioned before, all the other FBLA chapters in New Jersey came to the hotel as preliminary role plays were held that day. Both of these resulted in a very packed hotel, from the bottom floor of the hotel to even the elevators.
Tuesday saw even more activity as not only were there more competitive events that day, but also the campaign booths for those who were running for state officer positions. There were also multiple workshops being held that day on many different topics, from ones on how to be successful in a job interview to the powers of inversion thinking. The day would end with the first awards assembly for those who did the objective test, with Joshua Jaquez, a sophomore, ranking in the top ten.
Wednesday, the last day of the trip, would see the voting end for state officer positions, with the final awards assembly for those who did role plays or presentations.
What is the State Leadership Conference ?
(Courtesy of Lakeland FBLA)
Every year, the FBLA chapters in a state get together to host their State Leadership Conference, or SLC. This year’s SLC was hosted in Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City In order to be eligible for the SLC, you either must have ranked in the top 10 at the regional level in the form of an objective test, which would then see you take another test around a month before the SLC to determine your rank in the state, or you are doing a straight to states event, which as the name implies is an event prepared for months in advance for states. This event can be in the form of a presentation or a roleplay, with you then presenting in front of judges who will score you and that score determining if you ranked in states or not. The results for the objective test were shared on March 11, with the roleplays and other results being revealed on the awards night on March 12, the last day of the SLC.
Another main event of the SLC is the leadership elections, which sees multiple high school chapter officers run for state positions such as Regional Vice President or Community Service President as well as many other positions. The candidates create booths to promote their candidate, with their campaign occurring during the SLC. The SLC with the results for these elections also being revealed on the last day of the SLC
The SLC also offered many other things for the event, mainly workshops on multiple different topics from professional attire to inversion thinking and its benefits, with these having mainly occurred on the second day of the event.
Overall the SLC went very well for the LRHS FBLA, with many members placing high in their events, while also providing each member a fun and truly unforgettable experience getting to be with their peers at the conference.
What is FBLA ?
FBLA, standing for Future Business Leaders of America, is a student organization dedicated to “Develop competent, aggressive business leadership,” as well as “Create more interest in and understanding of American business enterprise.” The organization, having existed since 1942 with its first high school chapter in Johnson City, Tennessee, with the organization having now grown to over 230,000 members, with chapters across the United States at the middle school, high school, and college level.
