Polk County Public Schools
Twelve Polk students won awards at the 2009 Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) national leadership conference held in Anaheim, Calif. FBLA-PBL is a business education program in middle schools, high schools and post secondary programs for students to develop vocational and career competencies. Nearly 8,000 students competed in more than 60 different events representing a wide range of business and leadership activities as part of the FBLA-PBL national competition.
Shawn Jones and Hallie Webb of Winter Haven’s Ridge Career Center won second place at nationals in the digital video production competition. Jones and Webb are students in Ridge’s digital design program.
Bianca Mulaney, currently a sophomore at Bartow International Baccalaureate, won a ninth place at nationals in the word processing competition. Mulaney is also the local FBLA president for the 2009-2010 school year.
T.J. Konkol-Bennett, a 2009 graduate of Bartow High, received a “Who’s Who in FBLA” award at nationals for his outstanding contributions to FBLA at the local, district and state levels.
Seven other Polk students competed at nationals and were part of the southern region voting delegation at the conference. They are listed by the school they represented at nationals with their competition category in parentheses.
Bartow International Baccalaureate: Pranali Dalvi (business communication), Alyssa Ren (business law).
Bartow High: Eric Konkol-Bennett (introduction to technology), Sabab Osmani (computer problem solving).
Gause Academy (Bartow): David Schwartz (network etiquette).
Lake Gibson High (Lakeland): Frank Palencia (word processing).
Lake Wales High: Shreya Patel (job interview).
Winter Haven High: Christopher Humphrey (data design), Tiare Leon (partnership with business), Vanessa Leon (partnership with business), Zoe Maxwell (computer applications), Arlene Shi (partnership with business).
