ROYAL CITY - Nine students from Royal High School have qualified for the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) state competition.

The nine were winners in several different categories at the North Central Washington Regional Winter Conference. They tested their abilities against numerous other students.

The conference is attended by as many as 525 students from 27 different schools in this region.

"Though the numbers in the chapter are down this year, the representation from our school is still noticeable," FBLA advisor Pete Christensen said.

"It was a fun day for the kids and a great opportunity for our students to test their knowledge against other students with similar interests from a variety of backgrounds and abilities," he added.

FBLA is a business related organization through which students study and are tested in a variety of business subjects. There are more than 60 subjects in which to compete.

"Many of those subjects are not formally taught in our school district," Christensen said. "This forces the students to search out information in topics they may not get exposed to in our small rural district."

"To make it even more challenging, there is no classification breakdown in these events," Christensen added. "We compete side by side with schools as large as Moses Lake and Wenatchee in our region and numerous 4A schools as they advance to the state competition."

Listed below are the students and the subjects they qualified in to represent Royal at the state competition in April. There, they will compete for an opportunity to advance to the national conference in June. It will be held at the Grand Ole' Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

• Carter Allred - Agribusiness, Marketing and Sports and Entertainment Management.
• Morgan Small - Agribusiness and Business Procedures.
• Chase Christensen - Sports and Entertainment Management, Healthcare Administration and Marketing.
• Allison Joslin - Hospitality Management, Introduction to Business and Introduction to Parliamentary Procedures.
• Collin Christensen - Sports and Entertainment Management.
• Lindsey Small - Hospitality Management.
• Carson Gilbert - Hospitality Management.
• Ruben Hernadez - Introduction to Business.
• Jacob Lee - Insurance and Risk Management