Fifteen students from York Region, along with 31 of FBLA Canada's top high school business leaders, travelled to Chicago to represent Canadian future leaders at the Future Business Leaders of America's National Leadership Conference from June 29 to July 2.
The National Leadership Conference (NLC), hosted by the largest student business organization in the world, gathered more than 9,000 high school students from across the United States, Canada, and China to compete in business-related competitive events.
Canadian competitors qualify for the conference by placing top three in the Canadian National Leadership Conference. CNLC is hosted annually by FBLA Canada, the Canadian branch that provides opportunities to more than 1750 business leaders across Canada.
Among the 15 competitors from York school boards, six students placed in the top 10 and four others in the top 15.
"Students competed in event topics ranging from economics to sports and entertainment management," said Kathy Dong, FBLA Canada media officer. "They immersed themselves in interactive workshops, visited an information-packed exhibit hall, and heard from motivational speakers on a broad range of business topics."
Through the competitive events, Juno Zhao, a finalist in International Business, said he was able to socialize with the other competitors and learn a lot from their experience.
Dong believes that at FBLA, all members are high-achieving leaders who compete for internationally recognized awards, network with like-minded peers, and learn how to excel in the business world.
Another participant, Laura Gao, who placed fourth in Personal Finance, said her favourite part was at the awards ceremony.
"Seeing everyone walk upstage was such a wholesome moment, everyone was smiling and cheering," Gao said. "I really felt the FBLA community and I am so proud of my friends that got awards and everyone for working so hard."
Scarlett Liu is a federally funded Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Economist & Sun
