Greendale High School Sends Record Number to FBLA State Event

Greendale, WI -- Twenty-nine student members of the Greendale High School (GHS) Chapter of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) will advanced to the organization’s State Leadership Competition (SLC) at the Wisconsin Dells, next week, April 15-16. Altogether, 55 GHS students participated at the organization’s Regional Leadership Competition (RLC) held in February at Oak Creek High School. The GHS team also earned a second place award as an Outstanding Chapter at RLC.

Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) is the largest and oldest business student organization in the world. Its goal is to prepare today's students to become tomorrow's business leaders through leadership, teamwork, competition and exposure to various careers and companies in our area.

Of the 55 students participating from Greendale High, 50 students placed in the top eight of their event. Students qualifying for FBLA state competition include:

• Marisa Gumina and Hannah Marquardt, Third place in Business Plan.
• Mark Fuller, Second in Economics.
• Shaadie Ali and Ben Kuhnke, Second place in Emerging Business Issues.
• Theo Rudic and Joey Unrein, Second place in Entrepreneurship.
• Luke Eisner, Second place in Job Interview.
• Domingo Castro and Cedric Olinger, Second place in Marketing.
• Joe Grabowski, Second place in Personal Finance.
• Jacob Malinowski, Second place in Public Speaking I.
• Sam Bryan and Conner Bunker, First place in Banking and Financial Systems.
• Austin Tans, Zach Toberna, and Matt Tomczyk, First place in Business Financial Plan.
• Kacee Ochalek, First place in Client Service.
• Gabe Kaliebe and Philip Miron, First in E-Business.
• Maggie Neff, First place in E-Career Portfolio.
• Brady Kais, Tristian Pipp and Frankie Rutkowski, First place in Management Decision Making.
• Sarah Scheuer, First place in Impromptu Speaking.
• Rahul Mital, First place in Technology Concepts.
• Tyler Voss, Computer Gaming and Design. 

Over 800 business students from 32 area schools competed at the annual RLC event. Students tested their business knowledge, understanding and skill through hour-long objective tests, role-plays, performances or production of videos, websites or promotional campaigns. Various business classes, including investing and finance, marketing, event marketing, and accounting, encourage the students to participate and prepare them to compete.

In addition to the students competing at the state event, GHS students Rachel Haas and Marissa Pawlinski will attend the state conference to earn their Leader Level Business Award and act as Greendale’s voting delegates. Both recently earned the FBLA Future and Business level Business Achievement Awards. Doug St. Onge will attend as a Project LEAD participant.

Business Achievement Award Recognizes Elite Participation 

Haas and Pawlinski are the first members of the GHS team to also earn Future Business Leaders of America Business Achievement Awards.

The Business Achievement Awards are an aggressive, self-directed, results-based business and leadership program designed to compliment academics while accelerating a student's leadership skills. The awards focus on the main goals surrounding FBLA: Service, Education, and Progress. There is a heavy emphasis on education with integrated classroom projects, intermediate business knowledge, and active leadership in the community and regional FBLA.

This award is the second of a four-tiered awards program (Future, Business, Leader, America) aligned with the FBLA-PBL Goals, National Business Education Standards, and Career Clusters. The girls hope to complete the requirements for the America award next year. 

Other Programming for FBLA Students

Classroom lessons and FBLA-run competitions are just part of what the Greendale club does. Recently, a group of FBLA students participated in Northwestern Mutual’s Actuarial Career Seminar.  That event was designed to give students a better understanding of the actuarial field and the skills required for a career in actuarial sciences. Students rotated through workshops and heard a keynote address from the chief actuary at NM. This is just one of many types of seminars and business-related activities that Greendale FBLA students attend.

“Our students get exposure to all types of business environments through participation in the program,” said Mary Guida, Greendale High School teacher and co-advisor for FBLA. “Seeing their classroom lessons in action and participating in competitions where they can showcase what they have learned is helping to foster interest in a wide range of careers. This gives students practical experience and helps them to create connections with current leaders of companies around the city and the State of Wisconsin.”

In the past students have also toured Robert W. Baird, the downtown offices of Northwestern Mutual, Poblocki Sign, and UW-Whitewater. Teams of students participated in Junior Achievement’s Titan Business Challenge and have plans to attend a variety of other business-related activities this year, including a Forensic Accounting Case Competition, Economics Challenge, and EconomicsWisconsin, a year-long million-dollar stock market simulation. FBLA students will also compete in the Financial Investment Challenge Bowl, a regional and state competition, on their financial and economic knowledge in a quiz-bowl type format. This is a statewide annual competition.

Greendale Chapter Successes

Since 2000, Greendale’s FBLA team has sent 11 students to attend the national FBLA competition. Just last year, Greendale’s FBLA team sent two students from the Class of 2012 to the national competition after qualifying at the state level.  Andy Krachtt and Katie Gerls traveled to San Antonio, Texas, last summer to compete with their business plan. Their business plan was for a kiosk that could be operated at high schools for breakfast with products such as coffee, bakery items, and smoothies. They created a formal business plan that included topics such as detailed daily, monthly and annual operations, a detailed marketing plan, as well as the financial aspects of starting and running a business. They researched licensing, start-up capital, and ongoing legal regulations of their business.  

Katie and Andy presented their plan, and while they did not finish as finalists, they did finish in the top 30.  The National event offered Andy and Katie opportunities to attend business and entrepreneurship workshops and network with many business professionals.  Today, both of these GHS and FBLA alumni are students at UW-Milwaukee studying business and marketing.

“We are so proud of what our teams continue to accomplish year to year,” said Renee Albrecht, GHS teacher and FBLA co-advisor. “Our students’ achievement in the classroom is just one aspect of their overall development and preparation for college.”

“Participation in FBLA gives students the opportunity for recognition and networking as they move beyond high school to college and adulthood,” Albrecht added.