Redwood’s FBLA Attends LDI Last Weekend

By Odessa Marcos and Julian Vicente

FBLA is Redwood High School’s biggest club on campus, attracting over 150 students every year. This club is known for its size, competitions, fierce competitors, and its historic influence on campus.

Every year there is a conference called Leadership Development Institute, or LDI, which the first group of members of FBLA that sign up will go to in order to improve their skills as future business leaders. This year’s LDI was last weekend, and the expectations were high.

Mr. Avila, the FBLA Advisor, explains what LDI means to the club and the students. “The kids get to meet with business owners and are able to connect with people not just from Redwood, but from other schools as well.”

There is a high demand for students that want to attend LDI, and the sign ups are on a first come, first serve basis. “Most of the students new to FBLA are new to Redwood,” said Mr. Avila. Getting them acquainted with the culture is important to the team.

Nahir Karimi, ’22, said LDI was a great way to discover what FBLA was really like. There are over thirty simulations and twenty-five different workshop types, and it had a wide variety of things, something for everyone.

Alyssa Cantu, ’21, had some interesting things to say about her LDI experience. As a second year attendee, she said “This year I came in with a mindset of learning more, like I did last year.” Some things had changed since the year before, according to Cantu. She says that “Last year workshops were very diverse, and this year was more communications and marketing.”

The FBLA kids look forward to this trip for their chance to be with friends, learn new things, and gain experience. Overall, FBLA’s LDI trip was a success and one more in the books for this historic club.