Lilli Gustaf

“I thought the state competition was good, way more fun than districts. Although it was very professional, we could still have fun. College professors came in and talked to us, which was one of the fun things,” Gustaf said.

During the weekend of March 24-26th, six students attended the Iowa FBLA State Leadership Conference in Cedar Rapids. This past school year was the first chapter of FBLA at West High School. Although, In the coming school year 2024-2025 it is required that each school in the state of Iowa has some sort of career tech organization. An FBLA chapter gives many opportunities to learn more about the business world and leadership.

“We didn’t expect anything major this year because it’s our first year, […] so the fact that we had quite a few of them placed in the top 10 was very unexpected,” said Schwartzlose.

Four students from West placed top ten in their division Rachel Ehlers, Michael Durst, Arrianna Dolph, and Lilli Gustaf.  Rachel Ehlers finished in the top 10 in two different divisions Accounting I and Personal Finance. Arrianna Dolph finished 2nd in Cybersecurity.

“Fbla has helped me gain leadership and communication skills that I can use throughout my life. I know that I would like to study business in the future so I am glad I have opportunities to prepare and learn more about business in high school,” said junior Rachel Ehlers. 

As this year was the first year that West has been involved, it was new to the participants. Students have had to learn how to compete in their events and be successful doing so.

“FBLA has given students more experiences and opened their eyes to more careers in the business field and computer science. And they’ve also been exposed to different conference opportunities and leadership team building workshops so they get the opportunity to also meet new people in the state of Iowa that have a similar interest as them,” said FBLA club leader Mrs. Schwarzlose. 

Not only does FBLA give experiences to high school students about future careers, it also gives them experience of what they do not want to be involved in. This gives students a headstart into their careers and adulthood. 

“FBLA has helped me roll some things out of what I don’t want to do in the business field. In some of the workshops they’ll talk about investments and stuff and I’m really interested in that and want to learn more about it,” said junior Lilli Gustaf. 

In the first year of FBLA’s chapter at West, it has brought many new experiences and accomplishments for students. The positive impact it has had on students is preparing them for their lives.