CHENEY – The Cheney High School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club celebrated the conclusion of the 2021 season with “a huge amount of success at the virtual National Leadership Conference.” Three of the seven attending students placed in the national top 10 list: Steven Johnson, Ben Schreiber, and Skyler Hanson. Due to the remarkable success, the Cheney team finished among the top three chapters in the state.
“Senior Steven Johnson placed second in the nation in Database Design,” reads the FBLA press release. “Junior Ben Schreiber placed third in the nation in Computer Application Programming in a field of over 50 programmers from around the nation. Rounding out the hugely successful conference was senior Skyler Hanson who placed eight in Network Design and became only the third ever Cheney student to place top ten in the nation twice.”
Four other students — Joaquin Mendoza, Hope Schneider, Cameron Teresi, and Jason Hatfield — helped propel the team to national prominence.
The competition spanned the month of June and was performed with an added handicap due to the transition to remote preparations.
“The biggest problem with doing anything on-line was communication,” wrote business education teacher Adam Smith. “While we tried to use Microsoft Teams for most of our communication, club members were not in tune with that form of communication. Unfortunately, most of the communication tools that students use, teachers were not able to use. Things like discord, social media and texting are forms of communication students use and teachers were stuck using e-mail and teams.”
Beyond the prevalent issues surrounding remote communication during COVID-19, FBLA Club members were also forced to overcome a deficit in social interaction in a traditionally team-oriented experience. As a result, projects became individual efforts and coaches were unable to offer a traditional degree of oversight. But according to Smith, students undertook the responsibility without complaint and developed admiral problem-solving skills to overcome any arising difficulty.
“Normally we spend a lot more time and effort making sure they are ready for their events, however, due to the communication gap, they did not receive nearly as much guidance, but were able to figure things out on their own which I was very proud of them for doing,” Smith said.
For over 70 years, the Washington Future Business Leaders of America has been preparing middle and high school students for careers “in business, management, entrepreneurship, and technology,” and boasts over 15 million alumni. There are currently 160 chapters in Washington and over 4,000 students who participate in 70 events annually.
Scott Davis can be reached at [email protected].
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