EPHRATA — The Ephrata High School Future Business Leaders of America club had 28 students compete in the Winter Leadership Conference at Grays Harbor College on Jan. 31. All 28 qualified in the event and 14 students were regional champions.  

“Well, I'm really proud of the fact that we had more regional champions this year than we did last year,” FBLA Lead Advisor Scott Sanberg said. “Then I'm also proud that everybody we took qualified in one category or another.”  

The competitions cover a range of skills depending on the topics students are competing in according to Sanberg. Some of the competitions are tests students take; others are a bit more intricate. 

“The competitions vary,” Sandberg said. “We have role-play events where students will pick their event. One could be a sales presentation, where they don't really know what they're walking into ... They get a topic (like they’re) a car salesman, and they get 20 minutes to prepare, and they try to sell someone a car. Every event is different, though.” 

Sandberg said they have done better in recent years and last year they took 10 students to nationals and 31 students to state. The year before, two students went to nationals and 21 students to state. 

“We've noticed significant improvements over the last three years,” Sandberg said. “We've noticed a significant growth in our students.” 

This year Sandberg said he is optimistic they will have more students competing in the nationals, especially because they did well in the recent competition.  

“After feeling really good, we got our scores back today, and based on our scores and how we did, I'm feeling pretty confident that we'll probably have even more national participants this year,” Sandberg said.  

Champs: 

Addy Jo West – first place word processing  

Aryz Navarro – first place graphic design (team event with Baylie Broesch and Dayana Nolosco Gomez) 

Baylie Broesch – first place in graphic design (team event with Aryz Navarro and Dayana Nolosco Gomez) 

Calvin Becker – first place introduction to information technology, first place in network infrastructure and fourth place in cybersecurity 

Dawson Davis – first place financial math, first place introduction to financial math, first place personal finance and first place securities and investments 

Dayana Nolasco Gomez – first in computer application, fifth place in cybersecurity and first place in graphic design (team event with Baylie Broesch and Aryz Navarro) 

Micah Sandberg – first place computer problem solving 

Uriel Bustos – first place introduction to programming 

Placers: 

Caylee Mattson – second in business ethics 

Regan Shannon – sixth place business law, fifth place introduction to business communications, fourth place introduction to business communications, fourth place introduction to FBLA and sixth place for journalism 

Dayana Nolasco Gomez – fifth place in cybersecurity 

Calvin Becker – fourth place in cybersecurity 

Leslie Balbuena – fourth place health care administration, second place visual design and third place graphic design 

Landon Coe – sixth place in help desk, second place personal finance, second place visual design and third place graphic design 

Conner Leasher – sixth place in introduction to FBLA 

Chales Poirrier Lundquist – sixth place in introduction to public speaking and fifth place in social media strategies 

Paisley Ribble – fifth place for social media strategies 

Avery Gault – sixth place for visual design 

Kate Maedke – sixth place for both visual design and graphic design 

Romeo Arreola Morales – fourth place in visual design 

Kassandra Estrada Rangel – fourth place in visual design  

Dayana Cartagena Ortega – sixth place in graphic design  

Monty Muir – fourth place in impromptu speaking 

Alexandria Drake – sixth place in the job interview