The largest group of Future Business Leaders of America from Great Bend High School ever to make it to national competition just grew by two more students.
Seniors Haley Deines and Dylan Dreiling learned this past week that they will join four other GBHS students at nationals in San Antonio, Texas, this summer. Dreiling is the president of the local FBLA chapter.
“I was notified by our state chairperson that Dylan and Haley were bumped up in rankings to attend the national conference,” said Cody Lee, FBLA sponsor.
“There are two reasons why a student may get bumped up in the rankings,” Lee explained. “The main reason is that students cannot compete in more than one individual event at the national competition.  
“Students who qualify in more than one event must choose which event they wish to compete in at the national level, which in turn allows for more opportunities for other students to compete across the nation,” she said.
Ironically, Deines and Dreiling both qualified in Client Service and will be competing against each other. Deines placed third and Dreiling placed fifth at state in the event where they are given a case study on a disgruntled customer for a mock business. Through an exchange with the customer, the judge in this case, they must provide positive customer service. Students are rated on how well they handle the stressful situation with the customer and how they can effectively meet the customer’s needs.  
Deines and Dreiling will join Kevin Smith, Donna Craven, Ryan Jacobs, all seniors; and Sarah Niederee, freshman, to make up the six-member delegation to nationals. Kevin Smith will compete in Cyber Security, Donna Craven will compete in Business Calculations, and Ryan Jacobs will compete in Electronic Career Portfolio. Niederee will attend based on her winning her campaign for state editor.
“There were 1,964 students who competed at the state competition,” said Cody Lee, FBLA sponsor. “Students must place in the top two or three to qualify for the national competition, depending on the event they participated in.
“In some of these events, students competed against more than 300 people, so simply placing in the events is quite impressive,” Lee noted.
“The skills students learn at the national conference are like none other,” she said. “We will have to raise some funds to afford for students to attend.”