by Hailey Guit and Kayla Nalepa

Most of us don’t think twice about school during the summer, but this year 18 students will get the chance of a lifetime to travel to Chicago during the break. They will compete and representing Northern’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) at the organization’s National Leadership Conference.

The club recently went to the Maryland State Leadership Conference where they had 45 students competing in a variety of performance and test events and against 86 other schools. When students weren’t competing, they had the chance to attend workshops and learn valuable lessons on business and marketing. This year, FBLA had two advisors, business teachers Ms. Nancy Wilt and Ms. Teresa Jackson, and they were both very proud of the way Northern represented at states.

“States was amazing… Phenomenal,” said Jackson. “We took 45 students and had 20 qualify to compete nationally.” The State Leadership Conference was held April 23-25 in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The National Leadership Conference is held in different locations every year. This year, students will travel to Chicago June 28 – July 3.

Students had a great time at States and enjoyed all the entertainment from the workshops to the hypnotist who performed. “I had a very fun time. The workshops were great and very educational,” said freshman Samirah Brown. “The hypnotist was funny and did a good job, but I didn’t get hypnotized and I really wanted to.” All of the students agreed that the hypnotist was one of the highlights at States.

Students were picked randomly to go on stage to be hypnotized, but that didn’t stop other students in the crowd from being hypnotized as well. Northern didn’t have any students go on stage, but junior Lauren Mueller was hypnotized in the crowd. “I was skeptical at first,” said senior Branson Cameron. “When I saw Lauren in the crowd get hypnotized, I was convinced.” Once students were hypnotized, they did a variety of different comical things ranging from dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to driving the car of their dreams.

This year’s state conference had its biggest turnout ever with over 1,000 students in attendance. Students faced hard competition especially since other schools like River Hill High School and Huntingtown High School had more students competing. Despite that, the club was able to place second overall out of 86 schools, and everyone was very proud of their success.

While the competition was hard at States, it will be much fiercer at the national level with ten times more students expected to be in attendance representing their schools.

FBLA president senior Brianna Powell competed in Digital Design and Promotion, and was one of few students who placed first in their category. “I was anticipating going on stage for at least getting first through fifth place, but I wasn’t expecting to get first. I’m really excited that I did,” said Powell. “I have a really good feeling about my design, so I’m hoping for top ten at Nationals.” Powell had to design a number of products for a fictitious company then present the material to a panel of three judges.

While the students have to prepare for their competitions, they are all also very excited for the opportunity to see Chicago. “It’s going to be pretty crazy, and really fun too,” said senior Steven Hartman. “I’ve never been to Chicago so I’m excited to see it.” The members of the club are looking forward to sightseeing, tasting the food, meeting new people, and the overall excitement of the trip.

The 2014-2015 school year has been very successful for FBLA and they are excited to have so many students attending the national conference. “I think this year we are going to be better than ever,” said sophomore Saylor Mealing, who will compete in two events. Her individual event was Public Speaking, in which she took fourth place, but Mealing was also a part of FBLA’s community Service Project. She competed with sophomore Alissa Lambert and Mueller and came in first.

Wilt has been advising FBLA for 17 years and is looking forward to attending the National Conference with all of the students. “An awesome group of kids is going,” she said. “Maryland is as small on the map as it looks, so to even get mentioned is a big deal. I’m hoping to get at least one of our events in the top ten.” Northern has placed in the top ten nationally for their community service project for the past eight years.

For FBLA, it’s an honor to be representing Maryland and their school at the National level. The advisors are both proud of students and the members are all looking forward to the exciting experience.