The Mount Pleasant ISD Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Middle Level, grades 5th – 8th, competed at the State Leadership Conference in Galveston on March 24-25. This year was the group’s first in-person state conference with the 2020 trip cancelled due to COVID and the 2021 conference taking place online. The students attended an area meeting and took part in a workshop over teamwork with the other middle level students from across the state. Twelve MPISD middle level students made the trip to Galveston with all twelve placing and ten qualifying for Nationals.

National Qualifiers, their events and their places at state include:

· Career Research: Sage Jordan, Wallace (1st)

· Community Service: Emily Crabb, Wallace, and Cooper Rider, MPJH, (1st)

· Elevator Speech: Jayden Baker, Wallace (1st)

· Multimedia Website Development: MyKaela King, Sabrina Otero-Svirska & Alba Zeqaj, MPJH (2nd)

· Video Game Challenge: Ryan Burg, Isabella Furnish, Wallace, and Aloani Laboy, MPJH (1st)

National Alternates include:

· Career Exploration: Jaliyah Brown, Wallace (3rd)

· Digital Citizenship: Juan Mata, Wallace (3rd)

In addition, seventh-grader, Mykaela King, was named Who’s Who and seventh-grader, Sabrina Otero, was named Outstanding Middle Level for the Mount Pleasant Middle Level chapter.

“The group represented MPISD with pride during our time at the conference,” said FBLA Middle Level Advisor, Dana Armstrong. “I am very proud of all the students hard

work and dedication; they have worked every week over the past several months to prepare for their events. Galveston was a great experience for all of us, and I am looking forward to taking the group to Chicago for Nationals. Thank you, Nathan Rider and La’Shondra Brown-Lewis for all your help during the trip and for the support of the MPISD Administration and the school board without you the trip would not have been possible.”

Mount Pleasant ISD FBLA Middle Level was chartered at Wallace Middle School in the fall of 2018 with the help of Matthew Armstrong, 2018-19 MPHS FBLA President and Texas FBLA Area 6 State Vice-President, along with the MPHS FBLA advisor, John Whitten. In 2021 the group expanded to include members from Mount Pleasant Junior High.

The FBLA National Leadership Conference is set for June 29-July 2, 2022 in Chicago.

Photos:

1. MPISD FBLA Middle Level National Qualifiers and Alternates:

Front L to R: Jaliyah Brown, Emily Crabb, Sabrina Otero-Svirska, Sage Jordan, Jayden Baker, Aloani Laboy, Juan Mata, Isabella Furnish

Back L to R: Alba Zeqaj, Mykaela King, FBLA representative, Cooper Rider, Ryan Burg

2. FBLA Middle Level Who’s Who recipient Mykaela King with Advisor Dana Armstrong