Friday February 14, dozens of Ward Melville Future Business Leaders of America club members competed in the Spring District Meeting Competition at Molloy College. Over 20 students placed in the top three of their events, engaging in a wide range of business related fields, including public speaking, business law, and parliamentary procedure. For many students, placing in their events earned them the chance to qualify for the State and National Leadership Conferences.

In addition to participating in business events, students also had the opportunity of meeting others interested in the business field.

“The SDM provides us with the chance to network with FBLA students from across Long Island and to hone our business knowledge and leadership skills through competitive events,” explained Harrison Li, co-president of FBLA.

After a one and a half hour bus ride, students arrived at Molloy College at 9:30 AM, received event schedules, and headed to their events. Most events were one-hour long objective tests, but others required a speaking component in front of judges. At around 11:00, the students ate lunch and waited for the award ceremony at 1:00. However, it was soon announced that the award ceremony would not take place, and the results would simply be emailed the following week. While this was disappointing, students were still generally happy with the field trip.

“I had a fun and rewarding experience while developing business skills applicable to my future,” said sophomore Harriet O’Brien, who placed 1st place in Parliamentary Procedure and Introduction to Information Technology.

Many students will be participating in the State Leadership Conference in the spring as a result of their achievements at SDM, and we hope that they will be just as successful there.

Below are a list of the students who placed from Ward Melville:

Philippe Tarjan- 1st place, Banking and Financial Systems
Karen Li- 2nd place, Banking and Financial Systems
Nima Mohammadi- 2nd place, Business Calculations
Benjamin Winston- 1st place, Business Communications
Luke Sugrue- 1st place, Business Law
Ariel Leong- 2nd place, Business Math
Dinko Franceschi- 2nd place, Economics
Kyra Durko- 3rd place, Economics
Carly Weber Levine, Will Yoo, Harrison Li- 1st place, Entrepreneurship
Arielle Leong, Thomas Li- 1st place, Hospitality Management
Harriet O’Brien- 1st place, Introduction to Information Technology
Thomas Li- 2nd place, Introduction to Word Processing
Donna Yu- 3rd place, Introduction to Word Processing
Dan Yu- 3rd place, Personal Finance
Jason Lin, Aakash Gautam- 2nd place, Sports and Entertainment Marketing
Alice Liu- 1st place, Public Speaking I
Olivia Hu- 2nd place, Client Services
Sarah Sun-3rd place, Future Business Leader
Parliamentary Procedure Team- 1st place