Three Knox Central students competed against more than 10,000 of America’s best and brightest youth as they showcased their talents as future business leaders and vied for the opportunity to win top honors at the national level.
Christopher Gibson, a rising senior at KCHS, received national recognition at the FBLA Awards of Excellence held on July 2 in Nashville, TN. Gibson competed in Computer Applications and brought home third place honors. In addition to the third place award, Gibson also received a check in the amount of $300 from the competitive event’s sponsor.
Kelsey Engle, also a rising senior, earned fourth place honors in the Word Processing event.
In the Computer Applications event, Gibson was required to complete problems utilizing word processing skills, database integration, spreadsheet calculations, presentation software, and business graphics. For the Word Processing event, Engle demonstrated knowledge of page layout and reusable content, formatting content, illustrations and graphics, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and proofreading, references and hyperlinks, mail merge options, printing, and related application knowledge. Both students completed a home-based test which consisted of project composition in addition to a multiple choice assessment on-site at the conference.
Brandi Mills, a rising sophomore, was a finalist at the national conference but did not place in the top ten. In her event, Mills created, designed, and produced useable copy using desktop publishing software and demonstrated understanding and mastery of basic desktop terminology and concepts.
“Our students have once again demonstrated that they can compete against students and win on the national level,” said Frank Shelton, career and technical coordinator for the school district.
“In order to make it to the national conference they competed and won at the regional and state level. Once at the national level, they are up against the top three students from each state and from several other countries.”
FBLA, or Future Business Leaders of America, is a career and technical student organization for students enrolled in business and marketing education programs in high school. Its mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. The adviser at Knox Central is Virgena Rhodes who is assisted by Renee Adams and Frank Shelton.