When the middle school’s Future Business Leaders of America became an official chapter on Jan. 29 of this year, advisor Julie Burton did not expect many of her students to qualify for nationals only two months later. In fact, she did not even expect to compete.
“I was not planning on them competing at state because it was too quick,” Burton said. “(ACHS FBLA advisor JR Thompson), when I was signing them up just to go look around and see what it was all about, JR was like, ‘No, you at least need to let these kids try.’ So this was at 11:30 a.m. I had to have our check postmarked at 1 p.m. I did not have time to even ask them what they wanted to compete in. I just literally went down my list of kids and list of competitions and filled them in where I thought they would do well.”
The group of 28 ACMS FBLA students traveled to Somerset Community College on March 12. Of the 11 competitions they entered in there, the ACMS students won or placed in nine of them.
In first place, Cyndi Case won for public speaking. Eli Iqbal, Nash Collins, and Bowen Furkin won for website design. Mia Stephens, Ava Harrison, Konner Houchens, Ann Riley Corbin, and Raelee Turner placed first in the bulletin board category (after having to restart their board last minute). Lea Young, Olivia Jenkins, Delcie Burton, Jordan Davis, and Ava Loy got first place in name tag.
Second place winners include Emily Burkhardt, Milly Thompson, and Harper Martin in community service.
Colton Grant came in third place in exploring leadership.
George Willis came in fourth in financial literacy.
Hayes Burton, Bodie Lewis, and Greyson Wells placed fifth in mix marketing challenge.
The group’s achievements are all the more impressive when remembering they had only three weeks to get ready.
“We do not have a whole lot of time to get together… Because of snow, (we) only got two full class periods. And my groups that presented at state would come in during my fifth period and they would work. They had less than three weeks to get everything together and ready to go… They had bits and pieces of little chunks of time throughout less than a three weeks’ span,” Burton said.
On top of that, many of the other students had the advantage of having been to state or even nationals already.
“They went up against kids from all over the state of Kentucky,” Burton said. “This group is comprised of all sixth and seventh graders. The bulk of the competition was against other eighth graders who have been there, done that before.”
Regardless of the limited time to prepare and the tough competition, thanks to their hard work, 13 ACMS FBLA students will be able to travel to Anaheim, California this June to try their hand at nationals. FBLA member Eli Iqbal, who will be showcasing the website he, Collins, and Furkin designed at state for the Anaheim judges, believes his club has a strong chance at winning.
“Because we are so new, we are really going to be reaching out to our community to try and get some community sponsorships and things like that to help us get there. I am really grateful to the community. I know they will show up for these kids,” Burton said. “We are just so excited to represent the whole state and especially our hometown… I am so excited to showcase these kids and let (everyone) know what they’ve been up to. It is amazing what they have accomplished in such a short amount of time. I can not imagine what next year will be like… I told one of my coworkers I will never get over last Wednesday because they just kept calling Adair County.”
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com
