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School's future business leaders lead state
By Kelly Wilkinson
Given that Silicon Valley is the world leader in business, it was fitting that an area school swept the state competition of the Future Business Leaders of America.
The winners came from the Homestead High School FBLA club and--again fittingly--they captured first place by a wide margin.
"I was just shocked and blown away," said Byron Lee, FBLA co-sponsor and chair of Homestead's business department. "I knew we had a very strong team, but I was just amazed at the performance."
After winning the Bay Area section of the state championships in early spring, the Homestead team beat 105 schools to win the title in Sacramento on April 24. In three categories, Homestead students took all three places.
The school is sending 20 students to the upcoming national championship in Chicago next month.
The rest of the FBLA chapters in the area had a strong showing also. Lynbrook High School placed third, Monta Vista took fourth, and Cupertino came home with seventh.
Students competed in more than two dozen categories at the championship, ranging from accounting to business law to public speaking to parliamentary procedure. Participants had to take both written exams and oral exams.
Grace Park, a senior at Homestead and chapter president, said throughout the year her club focuses on three areas: community service, social events, and competitions. For her, the most exciting of the three are the competitions, when students are given the opportunity to display their knowledge to the judges.
"There's no way I can convey the experience of being up on the stage with everyone in the audience going wild, and you don't see anything because the lights are so bright on you, and it's a one-time shot to make it or break it," she said.
Park joined the FBLA during her freshman year. In her four years with the organization, she has seen it build on itself and become a bigger draw to more students.
"I think [FBLA] gives you a real good springboard into any vocation," she said.
"It's also important that we stand out as individuals and boldly say, 'Hi, I'm an intelligent person who speaks my mind and isn't afraid to be smart."
Kristina Trinh, a fellow senior, also admitted surprise at the team's rout in the state championship.
"I honestly thought that I'd take first in another category I was in that I didn't even place in--and that we would be fifth in the business plan," she said. "Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but I was really surprised."
And there was one more category where Trinh thinks they outperformed everyone without receiving the proper recognition: "We were definitely the loudest people there."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
