Buchholz High School Recognized with Nineteen Top Honors at FBLA State Leadership Conference

Press release from Alachua County Public Schools

Florida Future Business Leaders of America hosted an in-person State Leadership Conference March 11-13 in Orlando with almost 3600 students in attendance and 87 students from the Buchholz High School Academy of Finance/Future Business Leaders of America Chapter competing against some of Florida’s best and brightest high school students Cruising to Success as they showcased their talents as future business leaders and vied for the opportunity to compete at Nationals this summer in Chicago.

Students from across the state of Florida in attendance enhanced their business skills, expanded their networks, and participated in more than 50 business and business-related competitive events.  

Nineteen students from Buchholz High School’s Academy of Finance received recognition at the FBLA Awards of Excellence Program on March 13. First Place winners were Siddharth Bianchi for Accounting I, Isabelle Tseng for Business Law, Anwyn Tanner for Computer Applications, Eric Diao for Cyber Security, Devika Kumar for Insurance and Risk Management, Noah Hunter for Personal Finance, and Dylan Nihil for Supply Chain Management. Second Place winners included Max Conde for Accounting I, Vijay Hans for Data Analysis, and Kevin Zheng for Insurance and Risk Management. Third place honorees were Keen Zhang for Business Calculations and Nathan Wei for Introduction to Financial Math. Nolan Gao finished fourth in Business Communication and Lauren Baltozer fourth in Introduction to Business Communication.  Fifth place finishers included the team of Hailey Cupp, Hailey Garza, and Leslie Sarmiento-Vasquez for Introduction to Social Media, Lila Golde for Introduction to Business Concepts, and Edison Loftus for Network Infrastructures.  

“This was a record-breaking year for the Buchholz FBLA group. We had more students attend the State Leadership Conference and more students receiving recognition than in the past fifteen years that I have been the director and advisor,” said Michele Brothers, Director of the Academy of Finance and FBLA Advisor. “All 3 advisors–myself, Mr. Bell, and Mrs. Berben–are very proud of their accomplishments and commitment. It was great to get back to an in-person conference as the past two years have been held virtually.”  

In addition to the competitions, the students attended workshops on leadership and teamwork; an opening session; and a general session with keynote speaker Mr. Brandon Fleming, author of MISEDUCATED-A Memoir, Assistant Debate Coach at Harvard University, and Founder/CEO of the Harvard Diversity Project, as well as the Awards of Excellence Program.