Three Jefferson City High School seniors placed seventh in their category at the national Future Business Leaders of America competition in Atlanta.
Emily Rackers, Emily Hoerchler and Stephanie Grant competed against 15 teams in the sports and entertainment management team category after they received second place at state and passed an additional test before qualifying again to compete at the national level.
The trio were among 9,380 national and international students, including about 485 students representing the Show-Me State.
"It was cool to see kids from all over the world genuinely trying to improve themselves for their future that isn't required of them for school," said Hoerchler, president of the high school FBLA team and their district, which includes several Mid-Missouri schools.
Once students get to the national level, they can compete in only one event out of 70 open for qualification.
However, qualifying for nationals at the state level doesn't guarantee a spot to compete. Rackers said dozens of teams arrived in Atlanta at the end of June that didn't score high enough on the preliminary test to be among the top 15 teams in their category. About 100 teams were cut from the competition before it even began.
Rackers and Hoerchler said they spent weeks studying for the test before traveling to Atlanta and wished they'd started preparing even earlier.
At the actual competition, the three took another test about sports entertainment and business management and then were given a management scenario. They had to design a three-year comprehensive plan to construct an ice arena, addressing what the benefit would be to the community and what kind of fiscal return it could bring. Competitors have 20 minutes to create a plan and seven minutes to present it to the judges.
Missouri is a strong supporter of FBLA and has among the highest participants in the program nationwide. The state paid for coaches, including an Amazon employee, to fly out to the competition and help the Missouri students prepare for the potential scenarios.
Jefferson City High School FBLA adviser Shelley Smith has taken teams to nationals before, but many of her former students don't study for the tests. She said she has been impressed with the dedication of the three students who went this year.
"I can push and push all I want, and they won't study for it, and that's OK - they're high school students," she said. "But these girls took every test to make it to nationals. These girls I'm extremely proud of. They studied really hard."
Nationals next year will be in Anaheim, California, and the team already has sights set on attending.
Hoerchler said she wants to work in sports entertainment, in part, because of the knowledge she's gleaned in FBLA. Being part of the club makes the business seem more approachable, she said.
Rackers wants to become a professional dancer, which surprises most people, she said. Most assume she wants to get into the business world, but the speaking and critical-thinking skills she's learned from FBLA have universal application.
"A lot of dancers don't make it because they don't interview well," she said. "I've gotten a lot better at speaking and thinking on my feet, and I've learned how to study better and have built a lot of good skills."
"I think that's the beauty of it," Hoerchler said. "You're still going to use these things no matter what you go into."
