De Anza’s Phi Beta Lambda chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America triumphed at the State Business Leadership Conference on March 7-9, coming in first place in five out of thirteen categories at the competition, the most out of each attending school.
Zain Darwish, 20, vice president of FBLA Phi Beta Lambda internal affairs and second-year business administration and economics major, explained that on the weekend of the competition, the students prepared presentations of solutions to problems, which they delivered in front of a committee of judges.
“We were given a prompt, luckily, one month in advance, and there are a lot of different competitions. We have hospitality management, accounting, finance, management, business ethics, there’s a variety of presentations to do,” Darwish said. “It’s all very stressful, but the main thing for me, personally, is to take a deep breath, kinda, gather myself… and also just talk to my fellow officers.”
The event took meticulous planning, with the students practicing their presentations months in advance. Even during the competition, the officers would talk to the teams in the hotel rooms and “work through the different things they can improve upon so that their presentations are refined,” said Javin Ku, 19, FBLA Phi Beta Lambda president.
Ku helped take payments from the club members, who funded 90% of the trip.
The vice president of the club, Van Loc Nguyen, 21, business administration major, did not participate in the competition but went to support the students who were competing.
Nguyen said that he would check on each team and prepare them for the Q&A sections, which he says can be “a surprise, because you don’t have any prompts beforehand.” Nguyen’s best advice to avoid stress is to “plan beforehand.”
Three of the teams, including Darwish’s and Ku’s team, are set to compete in the nationals contest in Dallas from May 31 to June 2.
