Local high school students qualify for national business competition with wins at state

Press release from Alachua County Public Schools

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Eighteen Alachua County Public Schools students have qualified to compete in the national Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competition this summer, thanks to their performance at the FBLA State Leadership Conference.

Fifteen students from Buchholz High School and three from the Professional Academies Magnet @Loften High School (PAM@LHS) earned awards at the conference in categories ranging from Banking and Financial systems to Games and Simulation. The Buchholz team, whose members are part of the school’s Academy of Finance, was also recognized as a Gold Seal Chapter for their involvement with service organizations including Keep Florida Beautiful and the March of Dimes. The award-winners from PAM@Loften are enrolled in the school’s Academy of Gaming and Mobile Apps and the Academy of Robotics and Engineering. 

Nearly 6,000 students from across Florida participated in more than 50 business-related competitive events at the state conference, which also included workshops on leadership and teamwork. More than 17,000 students are expected at the national conference, which will be held in Anaheim, California in late June and early July.

The state award winners, who have all qualified for the nationals, include:

Buchholz High School

First Place: Alexander Harris, Jaite Howell, and Finnian Mangan for Banking and Financial Systems; Adrian Palamarev for Coding and Programming; Eddie Yuan for Economics; and Alexander Hughes for Introduction to Marketing Concepts

Second Place: West Gila for Accounting I, Reinata Jiang for Insurance and Risk Management, Luke Geltner for Journalism, Xavier Zaldivar for Personal Finance; and Daniel Zhang for Supply Chain Management.  

Third Place: Dane Meyer for Introduction to Business Procedures and Andrew Xiong in Securities and Investments. 

Fourth Place: Zachary Holth in Introduction to Business Concepts and Julia Klein in Spreadsheet Applications  

Professional Academies Magnet @ Loften High School

Second Place: Noah Gorme and Roland Fisch for Games and Simulation

Third Place: Alex Baldwin for Introduction to IT