Back to business

Katie Loose, Bradley Bifano and Thomas Ingraham, of Saratoga High School (SHS), took second in Emerging Business Issues as a team at the state Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competition from March 17-19.

Bifano was also third in Computer Applications, fourth in Spreadsheet Applications and fourth in Word Processing. Sarah Burton took fifth in Word Processing.

Jared Mason, the supervising teacher, said there were about 700 people at the Cheyenne event. "FBLA is regardless of school size so your Cheyennes, your Buffalos, all of those schools are there. It's really the best and the brightest from the entire state," said Mason, adding that placing at this event is a huge accomplishment.

Doing well at the competition looks good on future resumes because the skills are applicable to most jobs. Competitive categories like Emerging Business Issues give students more complex experience researching, examining the economy, presenting to a panel of judges and answering those judges' questions. "There are some (adults) who can't do that today," said Mason.

The Bifano, Loose and Ingraham team ended up researching privacy and technology today. They did that completely outside of class time, enterprising their own research since there is no class specifically for this topic at SHS.

The placers will be off to Atlanta, Ga. this summer for nationals. "They're all excited to go compete at nationals," said Mason.

From here, the students will need to fundraise for their trip and practice by attending a winner's camp in the middle of April, where they will get opinions and feedback on their projects. "Instead of Saratoga, now we're team Wyoming," said Mason.