Members of Prince Edward County High School’s (PECHS) Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) team traveled to Anaheim, California to participate in the National Leadership Conference (NLC) where they competed against more than 9,600 other national students from June 29-July 2.

According to FBLA Adviser Jessica Tibbs, the students competing included recent graduates Joel Thomas, Henry Lutz and Keillor Libby and rising sophomore Tiba Hamaz.

“With FBLA, it starts out at the regional level, which we’re in the Longwood Region, so they had regionals,” Tibbs said. “I had several students place there, and then they went to Virginia’s FBLA State Leadership Conference at the beginning of April,” she said. “So these four students that I took to nationals placed at the state level, and that enabled them to go to nationals.”

Tibbs said the students participated in the same competition at nationals that they had been working on since regionals.

Hamza finished eighth in the nation for introduction to business procedures. Tibbs said Hamza took a test that served as an overview of general business and management practices.

Thomas gave a speech at the conference.

“NLC was an incredible experience,” Thomas said. “I hadn’t been further than Alabama before, so I felt like Los Angeles was a totally different environment. It was an experience of a lifetime.”

Thomas said he learned “many valuable skills and lessons during my four years in FBLA.”

Libby was the only member of the team to attend who worked on digital video production.

“He was giving a presentation on his video that he created, how he created it (and) why he chose the topic, that kind of thing,” Tibbs said.

Libby said he had a great time at the conference with his friends before heading to college.

“I really hope (Prince Edward County High School) can get more students to qualify for NLC next year, because it is a great experience,” Libby said. “The opportunity to be among 12,000 students, many of whom share similar goals, was amazing.”

Lutz’s competition involved taking a test.

Tibbs said among the students, Hamza was the only one to place in the top 10. According to Tibbs, if students placed right outside of the top 10, the school wasn’t notified.

According to an FBLA press release, for many students, the competitive events serve as the capstone of their academic careers.

“In addition to competitions, students immersed themselves in interactive workshops, visited an information-packed exhibit hall and heard from motivational speakers on a broad range of business topics,” officials said in the release.