Two years ago, Moffat County junior Hannah Kilpatrick represented her team at the biggest event possible. This time around, she’ll be doing double duty.

Kilpatrick will compete at the national level for both DECA and FBLA on behalf of the local chapters of the business-themed student activities.

At the state DECA event in February, she just missed the cut for nationals in the Business Services Marketing category. However, she recently learned she would be eligible to join the six Colorado qualifiers.

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“I was able to get bumped up because some people who qualified weren’t able to go, so I thought, ‘Why not take the opportunity?'” Kilpatrick said.

The national competition for DECA — Distributive Education Clubs of America — takes place April 27-30 in Anaheim, California.

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More recently, she assured her spot at June’s national event for the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) during the state event in early April at The Gaylord Rockies Resort in Denver by placing fourth in graphic design.

While she was the only one to move on to nationals, teammates Gabriel Klingbeil, Lexington Bergstrom, Carson Laehr, Jonah Jenison, Wyatt Tucker, Riley Thompson, Travis LeFevre and Aliza Johnson all made it to the finals.

“My prompt was to create a branding project for a company in community, either made-up or real, so I took inspiration from my stepmom’s business,” Kilpatrick said. “You had to create aspects from scratch like a logo, social media posts, a billboard, infographics, a magazine ad, and present all that to the judges. You had to talk about your design process, your development process, and how that related to your theme in a role-play situation.”

Kilpatrick said she’s learned quite a bit of graphic design techniques at Moffat County High School, and she’s really grown in her personal skills as part of the DECA/FBLA program.

“I’ve gotten better at public speaking,” Kilpatrick said. “I used to talk really, really fast. I still kind of do, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it. It’s helped me be more personable with judges and not be so focused on the content, but my ability to present. The combination of those helped me place where I did.”

Kilpatrick also attended FBLA nationals as a freshman in the publication design category. While graphic design is in the same realm and perhaps more befitting of her talents, it’s not something she’s aiming to continue job-wise as she looks toward a future in molecular biology.

“It’s really fun and interesting, but I don’t see myself doing it as a career,” Kilpatrick said. “It would be more of a side project for me. I’d have the skills to do it, but there are other things I’m interested in.”

Her junior year alone, she’s had a hectic schedule between DECA/FBLA, running cross country, performing with the school band and acting in the spring play.

“It’s allowed me to experience a ton of different things,” Kilpatrick said. “You only get to be in high school once, and even though it’s busy, I enjoy getting to do a lot of things because they don’t overlap that much. I like to make friends with so many different people and have an experience that helps me discover who I am.”

Given the purpose of DECA and FBLA as a way to give teenagers a stronger grasp on the business world at an early age, Kilpatrick said she feels inspired by MCHS adviser Krista Schenck.

“I’ve learned so much about business and design from her, and without her, I wouldn’t be able to get to the spot where I am,” Kilpatrick said. “She’s helped all of us in FBLA and DECA get far. I think we had more people qualify for finals at state than we ever had, which is super cool.”