This past weekend State qualifiers for FBLA spent their weekend at the Gaylord Hotel as they competed in their events for a chance at qualifying for the National Leadership Conference. They spent three days at the Gaylord and competed in whatever competition that they originally qualified. If a student qualifies for state in multiple events then they choose one to focus on solely for state. To qualify for state, students had to place fourth in their event and initially Greeley West’s FBLA had one member qualify. Junior Bryan Corral placed fourth in his real estate placement test and earned the right to go to the National Leadership Conference which will be June 29-July 2, in San Antonio, Texas.
When asked what it means to separate himself from others and place in the top four, Corral said he prepared for months, sometimes for as many hours as three hours a day. “Just doing research on what terms I needed, as well as looking on the official FBLA website and on the test description to see what type of topics would be covered. And then I just focused on those, took notes, and quizzed myself,” Corral said.
He also mentioned a change in environment. The original test that he took was proctored at Greeley West by Mrs. Julie Ratliff, Greeley West’s FBLA sponsor, and the conditions for the state test were very different. He said, “ When I was taking the test, there were maybe 40, 30 other kids taking that test in a small room. It was very packed and I was actually very nervous whenever I noticed some people finishing with around 25 minutes left on the clock. But I kept my composure. I kept moving through, not getting stuck on questions, just marking them for review and then moving on, answering other questions I did know, and then coming back to those.”
In these past couple weeks, as students from other schools who placed top 4 in their event opt out of going to nationals for various reasons, other students from Greeley West may also get the opportunity to go to Nationals, including Kern Chahal and Sam Sasaki, both juniors, as well as Reymunod Ocampo-Flores, a senior.
Ratliff was very proud of the students who competed. “I am super proud of Bryan because I know that he worked really hard to study and prepare for the test. I know it was also hard because his event was almost one of the very last things that happened over the course of the three days,” Ratliff explained. “And so I know it was hard to sit around and wait in the anticipation of getting it done. But not only him, but I am super proud of all of the students that went because they all put a lot of hard work into it.”
