Education
Lehi-area students win FBLA national honors
Nine Lehi-area middle school students earned medalist honors at the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) national convention in Orlando Tuesday evening (July 2) by placing in the top 10 of their respective entry categories.
Two students were named national champions. Ava Downing from the Lehi Junior High School chapter took first place in Career Exploration. Viewpoint Middle School students Calder Haymond and Jackson Merrill took top national honors in Video Game Design.
Steel Labrum of Willowcreek Middle School earned fourth place in the Leadership category. Also from his chapter, Jenson Thomas took 10th place in Exploring Technology. Viewpoint’s Henry Reimschussel took fifth place in Digital Citizenship.
Other Lehi Junior winners included Dallin Butterfield and Keegan Worthen, who took sixth place in Chapter Activity Report and seventh place in Critical Thinking, plus Lula Allred, who finished eighth in FBLA Mission and Pledge.
The FBLA conference ran from June 29 to July 2 in Orlando, Florida. Students competed in different events by qualifying as winners at the Utah FBLA State competition in February. The national event included student competitors from other states and countries.
The competition this year was elevated with a change that allowed states to send four winners to compete in every event at the middle level instead of only two entries each as in previous years.
The first cut of the competition for the live events reduced the entrants down to 12 for the final round. The top 10 in each category were announced at the awards ceremony. This was also the first year that the national FBLA conference gave trophies to middle level winners.
Worthen, one of Lehi Junior’s double winners, said, “Nationals was such a fun experience. I am glad that I had good advisers that spent a lot of time this year to help me be successful in our FBLA chapter, at the state conference and at nationals.”
“These kids are amazing and represented the city of Lehi so well this week,” said Tiffany Quintero, chapter adviser at Lehi Junior High. “To say that we, as advisers, are proud is an understatement. Lehi students rock!”
