Two Yampa Valley students qualified for nationals in Future Business Leaders of America this year and traveled to Chicago to compete at the end of June. 

Moffat County freshman Hannah Kilpatrick and Hayden senior Piper Jo Jones both qualified for FBLA nationals. The two were joined by Krista Schenck, Moffat County High School’s business and marketing teacher, at the competition in Chicago. 

Kilpatrick’s event was called Publication Design, and this year the prompt was to design and market a men’s clothing store. For the prompt, Kilpatrick designed an outdoorsy menswear store that had an REI feel to it. 

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Over the course of the school year, FBLA students choose from over 30 events to come up with their project. Schenck said that some of the events stay the same every year, while others have a totally new prompt. 

For the menswear company, Kilpatrick designed everything from the logo to the products, created a design for the store and produced marketing materials for the brand. 

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At the same time, Jones chose to do an electronic career portfolio, which requires the student to research a selected field and come up with a presentation. Jones, who plans to attend the University of Colorado in Boulder this fall to study biology, did research that included following the coroner and putting together studies in the science field. 

At the national event, Kilpatrick made it into the finals, which required placing in the top 14 in the event. According to Schenck, there were 102 students competing in Kilpatrick’s event from across the county. 

There are even international students from Canada, China, Puerto Rico and Guam who come to the U.S. national competition to compete if their home country doesn’t have an FBLA competition. 

In order to qualify for nationals, students had to place in the top three at the district competition in Grand Junction and top five at the state FBLA competition in Denver. Jones placed first at state in her event, and Kilpatrick placed third at state in her event. 

“Hannah is the first kid from Moffat County to make the final round at nationals,” Schenck said. “We’ve made it to nationals before, but this is our first time in the finals.” 

This school year was Kilpatrick’s freshman year and her first year competing in FBLA, which Schenck said is impressive and makes her excited to see what Kilpatrick does in the future. 

FBLA is considered a co-curricular, so students must also be enrolled in business or law class in order to participate. Schenck said FBLA usually starts in November and goes until nationals in early July. 

Schenk said that there is a good number of FBLA students in the region between Craig, Hayden, Steamboat, and Rangely. There were 30 FBLA students at Moffat County High School last year and they got a lot of practice both locally and in the regional competition.