JERSEY SHORE - More than 8,000 students convened at the Future Business Leaders of America National Leadership Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, June 29 through July 2.
Among them were seven students from Jersey Shore Area High School: Gabrielle Chappel, Alexander Eckard, Ryan Palski, Ryan Reynolds, Mackenzie Stocum, Nathan Wasson and Toby Zimmerman.
FBLA members competed against student representatives from across the United States in more than 55 different competitive and skill events from the areas of technology, public speaking, business, finance and management.
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Jersey Shore Area High School students who participated in the FBLA national leadership conference are Ryan Palski, Nathan Wasson, Gabrielle Chappel, Mackenzie Stocum, Alexander Eckard, Toby Zimmerman and Ryan Reynolds.
The winners of these challenging and prestigious awards are selected from FBLA-PBL's 215,000 members, and have won state and regional competitions to qualify for the national awards program.
Jersey Shore FBLA members competed in three events, with two teams bringing home top honors.
Gabrielle Chappel competed in the Job Interview event and Mackenzie Stocum competed in Business Communications. Both Chappel and Stocum qualified for the national event by placing in the top of the state at the FBLA State Leadership Conference held in April in Hershey.
The remaining five Jersey Shore competitors competed in the Virtual Business Challenge (VBC) event. The online competitive event has student participants use highly visual simulation software to manage a business.
Students download software over the Internet and compete for the highest score against schools across the United States.
The FBLA Virtual Business Challenge encourages FBLA members to test their skills at managing a business as a team and has two qualifying periods, one in the fall and one in the spring.
The Jersey Shore VBC team of Ryan Palski, Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Wasson placed fourth in the nation and the Jersey Shore VBC team of Alexander Eckard and Toby Zimmerman placed ninth in the nation.
These awards were a part of a comprehensive national competitive events program sponsored by Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda Inc., a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs.
