FBLA students find success at state

Three students to compete at nationals in July

These are the faces of next generation's employers, innovators and business pioneers.

They will change the world.

But first they have to graduate.

Even that minor little detail isn't stopping the efforts of the Future Business Leaders of America club at Moses Lake High School.

At a recent state competition in Yakima, three MLHS students of seven placed and will go on to nationals.

The students who competed were Eriel Thomas, Nathaniel White, Ashley Gessel, Sara Seanez, Kelly Shannon and Monica Watson and Breanna Bottorff.

"People think that FBLA is just about us taking tests at state, and really it's about having fun, meeting new people and going to workshops and stuff," said sophomore Gessel, FBLA president. "What we do is, we're a leadership-based club. We take workshops on preparing us for the business world at fall conference, and at winter conference we go and compete."

Gessel said that the types of tests taken are in business classes. She placed at regionals in competitions on introduction to business, FLBA principles and procedures and network design, and took them at state, she said.

Other tests and events include public speaking, marketing, business communications and business math.

"It's all really useful, even if you're not going to be a CEO or an entrepreneur, you still learn things that you need to know," Gessel said.

Gessel and fellow MLHS sophomores White and Thomas will go on to compete at nationals in Denver in July.

"It'll be a fun experience to go to Denver and do okay, I guess," said White, who will be competing in the network design team event, and also in networking concepts.

"We hope to do well, yeah," said Thomas, who will compete in Java programming.

Both White and Thomas think that FBLA might "possibly" help them out with their future career paths.

"I might go into business or computers, maybe a computer business," White said.

"I'm going to do computer programming, or something like that," Thomas said.

MLHS business and marketing instructor Vicki Grisham, MLHS club adviser, is also regional adviser for the area, which includes 27 schools, she said.

"They're a small group, but they sure are smart," Grisham said of the Moses Lake High School club. "We like that. Students at Moses Lake High School and all the other schools in the area are doing a great job. Kids should be interested in all kinds of things — be in sports, be in clubs — not just their senior years. They should start out young and build, because a lot of times our first year students don't win in competitions. This year that's not the case, but normally, as they build up, they build knowledge, they build friendships, they build mentorships with people. It's an all-win situation."