9 members of the Business Club participated in the California Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Bay Section Leadership Conference in Daly City on March 2. Although none of the members qualified for the state competition, the club had a good first showing at the conference.
Since this is the Business Club’s first year at Campolindo, co-presidents Eric Ho and Sydney Liu were impressed with their performance. Ho said, “I was very happy with how the competition went; and although our club did not qualify anyone to state, this gives us something to build on, which is what we wanted.” Liu added that they realized they can start the club small and grow larger, as Homestead High School’s Business Club, currently the largest in the nation at 200 members, was once as small as Campo’s club.
According to Ho, when Campolindo arrived at the conference, they found that they had a very small team relative to other schools. “We didn’t really know what we were doing,” he said. “We can start small, but if you show up you are already part of the family.”
The 9 club members who attended the conference were Ho, Liu, Brian Lederman, Kelly Pien, Silvana Moiceanu, Alex Crook, Joey Lederman, Chris Garvey, Sarada Symonds and Charlotte Chen. Liu placed for “Impromptu Speaking, finishing 3rd, just one spot shy of qualifying for the state conference. Symonds placed 7th in the “Job Interview” category, Ho got 9th in “Public Speaking II” and the team of Brian Lederman and Pien placed 10th in “Entrepreneurship.”
Results were only available for those who placed in the top 10 in their respective categories.
Testing and speaking events are scored in different ways, according to Liu. While testing events are scored by the number of correct answers, different categories such as content, organization, and delivery are taken into account when scoring the speaking events.
Liu said that he did all of his own preparation for the event and none during club meetings. Ho said that he had to “work really hard the week before the competition” due to procrastination.
Since Liu did not have a competition in the morning, he was able to watch and bring back knowledge for future competitors. Liu sat in on the “Public Speaking II” session and was blown away by the high level of performance. “It is mindblowing how good they are. It was phenomenal,” he said. “This set a new standard, at a very high level with such a quality network of people.”
Both Ho and Liu hope that the business club will continue to attend this conference in future years. Ho said, “We want it to be like a business that starts up and blossoms.”
According to Ho, this competition is nationwide and culminates in a national event held June 22-25 and June 27-30 in Anaheim. There are 26 different schools in the Bay Section and according to Liu, it represents the most competitive section in the nation. “The kids that win Bay section usually go on to win states and then nationals,” said Liu.
Moving forward this year, the business club is going to tour businesses such as eBay, Bump, or Zynga as well as host more guest speakers at their meetings.
