Heritage High School’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) program recently went to the state competition in hopes of qualifying for the national competition in Washington, D.C. The competition took place between April 19 and April 22 at the Gaylord of the Rockies hotel. Unfortunately, the team did not qualify for nationals, but its members had a great experience and thoroughly enjoyed their time during the competition.
The competition took place over two days, and the Heritage FBLA team spent the first day “[roleplaying a scenario] where we were given a prompt related to our topic, which for my group was international business,” says Connor W. ’26. Additionally, the team “had to answer [a] question from a business standpoint in front of judges.” The second day of competition was spent “[Taking a test] on international business.”
The judges then averaged the scores between both days of competition and had the ten highest performing teams, who also qualified for nationals, compete on the third day. Unfortunately, Heritage’s FBLA team came eleventh, just missing the cutoff to go to nationals.
This doesn’t bother Bennett M. ’26, who says that “I was extremely close in securing a spot for nationals in 11th place, and the team all performed relatively the same.” Connor seconds this sentiment. “Unfortunately, we did not make finals, but I believe we did well for how much we prepared.”
Connor says that the competition only took about two hours and was worth the effort. “It was very fun, because it was only one to two hours of work, and [afterwards] I got to have fun and explore the Gaylord for 3 days with my friends.”
Bennett also appreciates having been to the competition, and says that it was a great way to meet other people engaged in the FBLA programs at their schools. “At the hotel, there were hundreds of [competitors from] schools all across Colorado. It was a great time and an amazing opportunity… to meet and connect with new people who are interested in the same subjects and [at the same intensity] as you.”