FBLA takes sixth overall at regional competition

By Riley Segal

Staff Writer

The South Pasadena High School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) team competed in the FBLA Regional Competition on Saturday, February 6 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. Twenty of the 30 SPHS students who competed placed in the top five of their divisions for both group and individual events, including ten students who earned first place awards.

The SPHS team competed against over 600 students from 16 neighboring high schools in the Mission Valley Section, including San Marino High School and La Cañada High School. SPHS won sixth place in the overall competition.

“I think the competition went pretty well,” sophomore Madison Pearson said. “We won a lot of awards in our various divisions, especially for being a small chapter compared to other schools.”

The conference at Magic Mountain was the second of a two-part competition. The first portion took place on Saturday, January 30 at Gabrielino High School. The latter focused on oral presentations while the former consisted of written tests. The state competition will take place in Ontario from April 14-17.

List of SPHS members that placed in the top five of their respective divisions:

1st – Computer Problem Solving – Jerry Shen

1st – Economics – Richard Ruan

1st – Intro to Business – Kate Ba

1st – Intro to Financial Math – Daniel Chun

1st – Hospitality Management – Isabel Blüml, Madison Pearson, Madeleine Wong

1st – Management Decision Making – Jacob Benowitz, Faith Kawakami, Jake McCurdy

2nd – Business Communications – Helen Yang

2nd – Cyber Security – Jerry Shen

3rd – Intro to Business – Cole Schroeder

3rd – Intro to IT – Joaquin Frommer

4th – Business Calculations – Daniel Chun

4th – Economics – Aaron Ogita

4th – Intro to Business Procedures – Michael Nelson

4th – Sports and Entertainment Management – Faith Kawakami, Alyssa Schwantner, Victoria Venardi

5th – Accounting II – Rachel Ba

5th – Intro to Financial Math – Lauren Sharkey