On April 15th and 16th, Fair Grove FBLA went to State and the following people competed in these categories: Madilyn Barker (11) competed in Business Communications and Personal Finance. Alex Ince (11) competed in Hospital Administration. Ashlee Gallinger (12), Logan Holliman (12), and Ryan Odom (12) competed in Marketing. Nick Cooke (11) competed in Mobile App Development. Liz Holland (11) competed in Public Speaking. Brystol Bates (12) competed in Journalism. Cydney Fullerton (12), Ryah Icenhower (12), Tausha Todd (12), and Logan Holliman (12) competed in Community Service Project, and Holly Lemon (12) and Ashlee Gallinger (12) competed in Partnership with Business Project.

These students have been dedicating time during and after school to work towards competing at State. Mrs. Robinson, a sponsor of the club, said, “We held a State ‘work night’ where we passed out study material and worked on projects.  The students also worked on projects during free time in class. Some of the projects were ‘co-curricular,’ where they did the project for a class score.”

Ryan Odom (12), one of the students that competed in Marketing, explained, “They gave us a business scenario prompt, and then they gave us twenty minutes to prepare a seven minute long presentation over the prompt.”

After they made the presentation, Ryan Odom (12), Ashlee Gallinger (12), and Logan Holliman (12), presented in front of a panel of judges and answered any questions that the judges asked after the presentation.

At FBLA state there are two different kinds of categories: role play and test taking. The role play category consists of presentations. The test taking categories consists of taking timed online tests. The role playing category takes place on the first day of state, and they get the results back the second day at the awards ceremony. For the test taking category, the students take the online test in the weeks before State and then find out where they placed during the awards ceremony. Ryan Odom, Ashlee Gallinger, and Logan Holliman were the only ones that competed in the role play category. Madilyn Barker, Alex Ince, Nick Cooke, Cydney Fullerton, Ryah Icenhower, Tausha Todd, Holly Lemon, and Brystol Bates competed in the test taking category.

Mrs. Robinson stated, “While we didn’t have anyone qualify for nationals, I still feel like it went very well.”

Ryan Odom, Ashlee Gallinger, and Logan Holliman received 8th in state for their marketing presentation.