Beat the streak.
Such words percolated in the minds of many class 2A chapter leaders at this year’s state Future Business Leaders of America conference in Portland.
Their best efforts, though, could not topple the FBLA juggernaut that is Elgin High School.
Elgin’s FBLA chapter emerged from the two-day conference on an ever higher pedestal. Elgin added another chapter to its story of unprecedented domination, winning its 13th straight title at the Class 2A level.“I am so proud of our students, they have worked very hard,’’ said Peggy Anthony, the adviser of the Elgin’s FBLA chapter.
Austin Burgess, president of the EHS chapter, felt elated and like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders after it was announced Elgin had won.
“I was excited and relieved’’ Burgess said.
Elgin students placed first in two categories and third in five en route to their 13th straight title. Burgess won the Future Business Leader competition and Miles Naughton took the e-business title.
Receiving third-place honors were the team of Stephanie Sanders, Brandi Campbell and Brenda Laber, who claimed the bronze in Digital Video Production; Beija Robbins, Public Speaking I; Jake Kennedy, Electronic Career Portfolio; Stephanie Chandler, Business Procedures and Susan Jones, FBLA Foundation Project.
The state title is the 16th the EHS chapter has won since since Anthony, an EHS business teacher, became its adviser in 1984. What is the key to Elgin’s title string?
“Peggy Anthony is the secret to their success,’’ said Evelyn Spikes, a retired EHS teacher who is now a counselor at the high school.
Spikes credits Anthony with doing a masterful job of motivating her chapter’s students and putting them in a position to succeed.
“Every year I’m surprised at how well some of her students do. The students surprise themselves and become proud of themselves,’’ Spikes said.
EHS has 52 students in its FBLA chapter, about a third of its student body. The Class 2A level is for high schools with 116 to 235 students.
“Peggy is an excellent recruiter for FBLA,’’ Spikes said.
Union High School’s FBLA chapter also had a wealth of outstanding performances. Two students, Caleb Harmon and Steven Cradera, won state titles, two placed second and one individual and one team finished third.
Harmon placed first in job interview and Crader won the spreadsheet applications title.
Union’s Jennifer Longwell was the runner up in Introduction to Business Communications and Jordan Roberts was second in introduction to Parliamentary Procedure.
Placing third were Union’s Parliamentary Procedures team of Shelbi Williams, Sara Bauer, Jordann Roberts, Cassie Colton and Jennifer Longwell; Briana Tanaka, Chapter Website; and Cassie Colton, Introduction to Parliamentary Procedures.
The UHS chapter is led by advisor Gayle Rickman. A business teacher at UHS, Rickman started the school’s FBLA chapter in 1989 and has been its adviser ever since. Rickman was named state FBLA chapter adviser of the year in 2007.
High finishers at this year’s state FBLA conference qualified to compete at the national FBLA conference June 23-30 in Atlanta. The place needed to qualify for nationals varies by event.
Following are the placers for Elgin and Union high schools, the two local class 2A schools who had state placers.
ELGIN HIGH SCHOOL INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1st–Austin Burgess, Future Business Leader
1st–Miles Naughton, E-Business
3rd–Beija Robbins, Public Speaking I
3rd–Jake Kennedy, Electronic Career Portfolio
3rd–Stephanie Chandler, Business Procedures
3rd–Susan Jones, FBLA Foundation Project
4th–Austin Burgess, Local Chapter Annual Business Report
4th–Samantha Perez & Ali Neitch, American Enterprise Project
4th–Bailey Wilhelm, Business Financial Plan
4th–Kyle DeChenne, Help Desk
5th–Kyle DeChenne, Introduction to Technology Concepts
5th–Wil Burgess, Job Interview
5th–Susan Jones, Chapter Newsletter
5th–Ashley Burgess, March of Dimes Project
6th–Chantele Malone, Public Speaking I
6th–Wil Burgess, Electronic Career Portfolio
7th–Susan Jones, Word Processing II
7th–Garret Crawford, Chapter Web Site
10th–Ashley Burgess, Public Speaking II
6th-Susan Jones and Austin Burgess, Banking and Financial Systems.
6th-Jade Silver and Aspen Risseeuw, Partnership With Business Project.
7th-Dillan Moore Garrett Crawford, Web Site Development.
7th-Ashley Burgess and Stephanie Chandler, Community Service Project.
ELGIN HIGH SCHOOL TEAM RESULTS
3rd–Stephanie Sanders, Brandi Campbell and Brenda Laber, Digital Video Production
6th–Susan Jones and Austin Burgess, Banking and Financial Systems
6th–Jade Silver and Aspen Risseeuw, Partnership with Business Project
7th–Dillan Moore and Garret Crawford, Web Site Development
7th–Ashley Burgess and Stephanie Chandler, Community Service Project
6th–Chantele Malone, Garret Crawford and Susan Jones, Chapter.
Publicity Award
ELGIN HIGH SCHOOL BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Business Level–Ashley Burgess, Samantha Perez and Ali Neitch.
Future Level–Susan Jones, Austin Burgess, Jade Silver, Beija Robbins, Chantele Malone, Aspen Risseeuw, Stephanie Sanders and Brenda Laber.
ELGIN HIGH SCHOOL INDIVIDUAL RECOGNITION AWARD
Who’s Who of FBLA–Austin Burgess
UNION HIGH SCHOOL INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
Briana Tanaka, 3rd place, Chapter Website.
Sarah Longwell, 10th place, Chapter Scrapbook.
Caleb Harmon 9th place, Business Communications.
Megan Tanaka 5th place, Business Communications.
JaKarra Sanders, 10th place, Computer Applications.
Jennifer Longwell, 2nd place, Introduction to Business Communications.
Cassie Colton, 3rd place, Introduction to Parliamentary Procedures.
Jordann Roberts, 2nd place, Introduction to Parliamentary Procedures.
Briana Tanaka, 7th place, Introduction to Parliamentary Procedures.
Caleb Harmon, 1st place, Job Interview.
Steven Crader, 1st place, Spreadsheet Applications.
Briana Tanaka, 4th place, Website Development.
UNION HIGH SCHOOL TEAM RESULTS
Ally Brudevold, Brittany Josephson and Daniel Mitchell, 6th place, Community Service Project
Shelbi Williams, Sara Bauer, Jordann Roberts, Cassie Colton and Jennifer Longwell, 3rd place, Parliamentary Procedures Team.
