By Aleena Sanchez and Mia Trevino
Redwood’s FBLA [Future Business Leaders of America] has been doing exceptionally well in their competitions leading up to them being able to attend nationals that will be held in Chicago this summer.
Although nationals will be held during summer and the current seniors will be graduating, they will still be able to attend and compete.
Nahir Karimi, ’22 is the current club president and has been in FBLA all four years of high school. Karimi said, “FBLA has had a strong and positive impact on my senior year and I am enjoying every single minute of it.”
He adds, “My favorite thing about FBLA is the trips we take for competitions and representing Redwood at a high level.”
Although Karimi is not attending nationals this summer, he is still involved in the preparation for the competition. He says, “study sessions, study materials, and getting ready for each and every individual event” is how the club prepares and gets ready for the competition.
This year, FBLA did have to endure some struggles but the club has still persevered. Karimi says, “The conflicts of COVID [have] affected us because we could not use the gym for our central section competition and had to be outside in the quad.”
Karimi states, “For the state competition, there was a debate on whether or not we would have to get COVID tested before going or not.” He adds that FBLA was able to overcome these challenges “with [their] amazing advisor, Mr. Avila, who guided [them] through this and [led them] to success.”
After being asked if nationals being held in Chicago will affect the amount of members attending Avila says, “We have our second most going in about fifteen years, we have fourteen kids going and the most we have taken under my leadership is twenty, so fourteen is a lot.”
With the competition being held so far away, it is difficult for all members of FBLA to attend not only because of the cost, but other commitments that were made prior to knowing they would be going to nationals.
Adding to the fees, Avila says, “For the most part, we are going to fly out together. They will pay for the flight and some of the hotel and our chapter pays for their registration and some of the hotel.”
Avila also adds after being asked if the number of students will affect their competition, “No, I think we will be fine, like I said, we have more than normal. They are going to prepare in the next two months, so I’m excited to see how they do.”
FBLA competes in nationals this summer, from June 28 to July 3.
Tags: aleena sanchez, clubs & lifestyles, fbla, Mia Trevino, nationals competition, Redwood, redwood fbla, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers