Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) members competed at the Inland Section Leadership Conference (ISLC) Saturday, Feb. 12 at Los Osos High School. 

The ISLC allows students to compete in different events like accounting, business calculations and economics. This is the first in-person leadership conference that FBLA has attended in almost two years. Students who placed in the top six qualify for the State Leadership Conference (SLC) in April. Walnut placed third in sweepstakes along with multiple individual placements from FBLA members.

“[Being in-person] did make me a bit nervous because I knew that there would be a lot of supervisors watching me as I took the test,” freshman Audrey Lin said. “I ended up placing fifth place for intro to business procedures. I felt like I could do better but I was excited for sure.”

In addition to objective tests, the conference offered presentation events such as public speaking, impromptu speaking and sales presentations. The in-person competition also allowed competitors to meet students from other schools through different social activities such as karaoke and bingo. 

“I was actually pretty nervous going into the competition because we kind of shrank as a chapter due to COVID-19. It was fun seeing everyone from the different chapters. It feels a lot more connected because they had a lot of social activities where you got to know a bunch of different people. You’re able to work with a lot more people and exchange ideas,” president senior Isabel Zhou said. “I’m proud of our entire team. We came together and did super well.”