Newcastle’s Future Business Leaders shine

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The future looks bright for the Newcastle High School Future Business Leaders of America, at least if the State FBLA competition is any indication. Head sponsor Alysha Engle was pleased with her team’s results especially given the challenges they faced because of COVID-19 and Mother Nature.
Due to the pandemic, the state competition was scheduled to be held at various regional locations in order to hold numbers of competitors down, however on the day the NHS students were to travel to Buffalo to compete, treacherous weather and road conditions statewide caused it to be canceled. Therefore, Engle had to enact Plan B which was to compete virtually.
“The kids had to be very creative and flexible to make it work,” she explained. “When they presented, the whole thing had to be done by video and it couldn’t be edited. Voice-overs were not allowed, it had to be one continuous film, and it had to be done in one take. If they had been able to compete in person, edited videos with voice-overs would have been allowed, so it was just really hard this year.”
The students rose to the challenge, however, and 27 placed in several different categories. The competition is divided into two categories so participants can either take a multiple choice test in their category or do a presentation on a project. In addition, FBLA is not class specific so all Wyoming students in the organization compete against each other.
Sierra Checketts placed first in Future Business Leader, which is similar to Job Interview, but the focus was more on her FBLA accomplishments. Checketts had to provide a resumé and cover letter, then sit for a panel interview. Avery Chick also competed in this category where he finished fourth.
Checketts partnered with Zade Orsborn and got another first place in E-Business. For this project, they were required to create a website and market some sort of a business. The partnership created a school online store which they presented to the judges. 
“The website was actually active, and kids were trying to buy merchandise because they thought it was real,” Engle chuckled. “Though that was a bit of a snafu, the fact that sales attempts were made was a testimony to how authentic their project looked.”
Colton Vanderpool-Mobely opted to take a test in Introduction to Business where he placed first. Engle stressed that competing in the test category is quite difficult because there are usually around 100 kids who take the test, therefore Vanderpool Mobely’s performance was certainly impressive.
Anasofia Baeza, Hunter McFarland and Mercedes Voelker competed in Public Service Announcement where they also took first. In this category, the students were required to create a 30-second public service announcement then put together a presentation discussing where they came from, their ideas and how their project came together. All competitors are given the same topic with this year’s being the dangers of vaping. Avery Chick and Rachel Sweet finished second in this category as well.
Zade Orsborn, Ezra Anderson and Aidan Chick brought home first in Web Page Design. The topic this year was that they had to feature a photographer. The trio created a photography website which included special features as well as a means of ordering prints, etc. 
In Publication Design, MacKenzie Conzelman, Kayley Munoz and Tiernan Stanton earned second place. Their topic was to create a subscription service and theirs was a spa basket. 
“So the girls created a business kind of like Fabletics where you sign up for a monthly delivery of some product,” Engle specified. “They had to design what their product was and design the website which featured their product.”
Alaina Laurence, Alaina Steveson and Hailey Wehri placed third in Broadcast Journalism where they created a broadcast for a school. 
“They had to do a teacher feature as well as two other stories, so they interviewed Mr. Stith, covered the Silent Basket Auction and created an athlete feature,” Engle described. “Normally, this would be done live in front of judges with an accompanying video, however this year those interviews and broadcasts had to be live.” 
Matthew Drake opted to test in the Business Calculations category and his results earned him third place.
Jaylen Ostenson and Shelby Tidyman also finished third in Graphic Design. In this category, participants were required to design for a new sports team. 
“The scenario is that a new sports team has come to your town and the chamber has hired you to design their logo, hats and other merchandise,” Engle expounded. “Jaylen and Shelby opted to design for a baseball team which chose Newcastle as its location.”
Zade Orsborn competed again by testing in the Personal Finance category where he finished fourth. Will Beastrom, Zach Orsborn and Colton Vanderpool-Mobley finished fifth in Business Presentation.
“This is a freshman and sophomore only category and the team presented on the dangers of social media in your future career or college,” Engle said. “I loved the topics this year because these are real-life issues that they will face. The statistics they discovered really scared them and made them think.” 
Grayson Ramsey, Gunner Ramsey and Christian Santos placed fifth in Broadcast Journalism, Kayley Munoz and Tiernan Stanton also placed fifth in Sales Presentation while Taten Engle, Gabby McVay and Hogan Tystad finished sixth in Business Presentation.
The top four places qualify for nationals, however Newcastle will not be participating this year. “It was supposed to be at DisneyLand in California but due to COVID, the entire thing is virtual,” Engle frowned. “Honestly that makes it just so hard. It was a great year and the kids did amazing. They are always really successful but this year was just super weird. I’m really glad that so many chose to compete.”