Riverdale High School’s Future Business Leaders of America students won eight events at the 60th Annual Florida FBLA State Leadership Conference, held April 5-8 in Orlando.

The team is now working diligently to raise $10,000 to attend nationals in June in California. The students have six weeks left of the school year to raise the money.

“I’ve been doing FBLA for 15 years and there have been some incredible students who have done awesome things,” Lleane Flores, Riverdale business teacher and chapter adviser, said. “But this sophomore class has totally changed what I think the potential for sophomores is.”

Out of 14 students who competed from Riverdale, 13 were sophomores, beating upperclassmen statewide in most of the events.

“They are determined and hardworking and driven,”?she said.

Riverdale has had the largest FBLA chapter for the past 10 years in the five-county region, but it has never had 14 wins at states.

The students had months of preparation with reading textbooks, coaching and practicing prompts.

For the competition, each section combined all of the technical and business skills the students had learned. They had to perform them as though they were professional consultants or business leaders.

The students are determined to raise the funds to go to nationals. They are doing their own individual fundraisers, with each student needing to raise a minimum of $1,200.

“The hard part for them now, is nobody has any money,” Flores said. “The school has no money, the district has no money.”

The students are writing emails and letters and calling businesses for donations and sponsors.

“We’ve been told everywhere that we can’t get help from anyone for these kids to go to nationals,”?she said. “There are people in the community who want to see them do well, they just don’t know how great the need is.”

The community is asked to help support the students through donations, no matter how small.

“I have been really amazed at when the business community hears what these students are doing, they have been very generous and we really appreciate that,” Flores said. “This is the future for our community. It’s an investment for the community to have these students represent not only our county, but Florida.”

Sophomore Malia Williams was one of the first place winners in the Global Business event at states.

“My biggest challenge right now is fundraising because it’s a lot of money,” she said. “So I’m just trying to figure out all the ways I can raise funds to get there.

“They announced it at my church, and I’ve been going around to businesses handing them letters,” Williams said. “Basically, wherever I go I give them out.”

Aside from raising funds, the students are preparing for nationals by perfecting their skills. They will complete against hundreds of other students at the national level. They are rewriting business plans, restudying global business issues and practicing public speaking.

Williams noted that she is working hard to prepare herself.

“It felt really accomplishing because this is my first year competing, even though I’ve been in the club for two years,” she said of competing at states.

“I didn’t really think we were going to get first place,”?Williams said. “It was a big feeling of happiness and accomplishment that my hard work paid off.”

She said she is most excited to meet students from other schools from all over the country. She is looking forward to meeting people who share the same goals.

Since the Riverdale FBLA was founded at the school, there have only been two national wins.

Future Business Leaders of America is a co-curricular program that goes with business curriculum, which helps students transition from school to work.

To donate to the students or to become a sponsor, contact Lleane Flores at 239-694-4141 or ileaneif@leeschools.net.