De Anza College’s chapter of Phi Beta Lambda faced off against 11 other schools, racking up 10 awards in San Diego at California’s 75th annual State Fall Business Leadership Conference on Nov. 8 and 9.

The delegation won eight individual and group awards and snagged two first place finishes as a club. 

For the conference, teams get a case study ahead of time based on their category — finance, marketing and sales or hospitality management — and present their solution in front of judges.

Public speaking and entrepreneurship pitch competitors get a rubric instead of a case study to guide their pitch or speech.

“We had to formulate our own business idea,” Shakil Musthafa, 18, business administration major, said. “We had to make it feasible,  explain the product and get ready for judge questions.”

Musthafa’s team took home one of the delegation’s three first place awards.

In preparation for the conference, PBL De Anza organized a four part boot camp learning how to structure cases around the competition’s different categories.

“Each group gets sent an example case which they work on,” Jennifer Cooseman, 31, business administration major, said. “They (the groups) do mock presentations and get feedback.”

Teresa Hsu, 19, economics major, said the conference gave her time to bond with other members and strengthened the club’s sense of community.

“Placements are not what matter the most to me,” Hsu said. “I like to work with different people with different styles and meet new friends who strive to learn and to improve themselves.”

While this conference doesn’t move the club further in state or national competitions, it prepares it for the upcoming State Business Leadership Conference in San Francisco on March 27 to 29, and for the National Leadership Conference in Las Vegas from June 6 to 8.

Event Awards:

• Entrepreneurship Pitch:
  • First Place: Om Bathija, Shakil Musthafa, Timothy Nguyen, Bryant Vo
  • Fifth Place:  Jennifer Cooseman, Nikunj More, Nisa Pradhan, Arya Somu
• Finance:
  • Fourth Place: Carine Chan, George Huang, Christina Tran, Anna Huynh
  • Fifth Place: Anirudh Ahluwalia, Jacob Eliashberg, Joseph Leytes, Pak Hei Wong
• Hospitality Management:
  • Third Place: Jacob Chen, Vincent Chao, Joshua Morris, Ella Yang
  • Fifth Place: Haley Truong, Jayden Phan, Francisco Rodriguez, Michelle Nguyen
• Public Speaking:
  • Second Place: Derrick Nguyen
  • Fourth Place: Olivia Ma
• Chapter Awards:
  • First Place: Greatest Membership
  • First Place: Conference Attendance