By Rodin Batcheller

Sports Editor

From April 6 to 9, juniors Bianca Lee and Emily Wang of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club competed at the State Leadership Conference in Sacramento, taking home first place in Publication Design in the state of California.

After working on their project since February, the pair was chosen out of the top five entries in the state to compete in the event.

“It was really fulfilling to see all our hard work over the past few months pay off,” said Wang.

This is the 20th consecutive year in which the club has competed at state since its establishment at Gabrielino High School in 1998.

Gabrielino FBLA has also demonstrated its excellence by learning the Gold Seal Chapter Award of Merit every year it has attended the conference, which is only given to the top 15 percent of chapters in the state.

The club participated in 19 of the 84 events, with seven members placing in six of them.

Along with the state champions, freshman Katherine Xie placed second in Intro to Business Communication, junior Victoria Nea placed fourth in Public Speaking II, freshmen Casey Lee and Jiin Lee placed fourth in Graphic Design, and Chapter Business Report team of juniors Bianca Lee, Benjamin Vuong and Emily Wang placed sixth. Vuong, Gabrielino FBLA , also placed tenth in Business Law.

The club also qualified six members to the National FBLA Conference: Bianca Lee, Casey Lee, Jiin Lee, Nea, Wang, and Xie. The event will take place from June 23 to July 2 in Anaheim.

A meeting was held the following Friday where members reflected on the conference with a slideshow and a performance by the state champions, Bianca Lee and Wang.

“I’m glad to have gotten closer to everyone who went on the trip,” stated Bianca Lee, “and to have met so many people throughout the conference.”