On Wednesday, April 11, the MSMS Future Business Leaders of America club headed off to State FBLA Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. FBLA is a national organization that promotes business education and the development of leadership skills. Members are allowed to compete in a wide array of competitions, either through testing, prejudged reports, and/or presentations.

MSMS first competed at District competition at Northeast Mississippi Community College in February to see if they would advance to the state-level competition.

Those who advanced along with some other students who did state-only events, competed in Jackson April 11-12. The competitive events included: Accounting, American Enterprise, Business Calculations, Community Service Project, Business Ethics, Electronic Career Portfolio, Emerging Business Issues, Impromptu speaking, Marketing, Organizational Leadership, Parliamentary Procedure, and Publican Design. All of the MSMS state competitors placed in the top three, and we placed 1st in nine events. All of our competitors are eligible to move on to compete at the National Leadership Conference in Baltimore, Maryland this summer.

Brianna Ladnier, FBLA Club President, considers the experience rewarding. “I am unbelievably grateful for the entire experience. I  truly appreciate the amount of effort and time every person put into their competitions as well,” Ladnier said.

Club sponsor, Dr. Kayla Hester, also takes great pride in the students’ work. “The experience was great. I was very proud of all the hard work the students put into preparing for their competitive events, and that it paid off for everyone. They represented MSMS incredibly well, both in their events and how they conducted themselves at the conference,” Hester explained.

The full list of awards and recognition is as follows:

Membership Madness–Brianna Ladnier, John Bowlin, and Calisa Henry.

Future Business Achievement Award–Advaith Sunil, Alan Elgin, Anna Overstreet, Aurelia Caine, Brianna Ladnier, Caitlin Jordan, Calisa Henry, Deja Hughes, Devin Chen, Jilkiah Bryant, John Bowlin, Kiera Monroe, Likhitha Polepali, Lori Feng, Loveish Sarolia, Millie Perdue, Sabrina Solomon, Sara Scott, Sara Sheward, Sierra Reynolds, Ta’Kiya Moore, Tija Johnson, and Trinity Cannon

First Place–American Enterprise Project: Brianna Ladnier, Devin Chen, and Lori Feng

                          Business Calculations: Alan Elgin

                          Community Service Project: Brianna Ladnier

                          Electronic Career Portfolio: Sara Sheward

                          Emerging Business Issues: Lori Feng

                          Impromptu Speaking: Brianna Ladnier

                          Parliamentary Procedure: Advaith Sunil, Devin Chen, Loveish Sarolia, and Millie Perdue

                          Website Design: Sierra Reynolds and Deja Hughes

                          Word Processing: Aurelia Caine

Second Place–Local Chapter Annual Business Report: The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science

                               Accounting: Anna Katherine Overstreet

                               Marketing: John Bowlin, Calisa Henry, and Sabrina Solomon

Third Place–Business Ethics: Ta’Kiya Moore and Tija Johnson

                            Publication Design: Caitlin Jordan

                            Organizational Leadership: Likhitha Polepalli

MSMS also won the Chapter Increase Award along with the Tier Three “Lead the Way” Award, which is the highest tier possible.