Eight members of Pleasant Valley High School’s Future Business Leaders of America qualified for the National Leadership Conference. One of them won State Champion in her category at the State Competition in Hershey last week.

Sophomore Mira Giunta won the State Champion award in the category “Introduction to FBLA.” There were 88 categories in the competition.

PV-FBLA adviser Denise Hopely said the state conference brought together more than 5,000 students from over 300 chapters in Pennsylvania. The competition ran from April 17 to 19. Of PV-FBLA’s 105 members, 65 competed at states.

“I am thrilled for these students,” Hopely said. “I know the tenacity of this PVSD chapter. They are proud to be Pleasant Valley School District students, and take pride in representing PVSD.”

In addition to Giunta, the other students going to the National Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia include:

• Second place - John Onubogu and Jonathan Petzold, juniors, both in International Business, and;

• Fourth place - Aaron Bien, junior, Business Law; Annalisa Lanigan, sophomore, Introduction to Public Speaking; Julius Perez, freshman, Computer Problem Solving; and Lillian Erhardt and Briana Palmieri, sophomores, Community Service.

Hopely said the students who place in the top four for each category at States can go onto the National competition, which will take place from June 26 to July 1.

At both States and Nationals, students can compete in multiple categories. Some of the students going to Nationals also placed in the Top 10 at states. All of those from PV-FBLA to finish in the Top 10 include:

• Fifth place - Clark Po, Introduction to Parliamentary Procedures; and Mya Maciejewski, Agribusiness;

• Sixth place - Lillian Erhardt, Introduction to Public Speaking;

• Seventh place - Maria Saitta, Izabela Baran and Mira Giunta, Local Annual Chapter Business Report; and Briana Palmieri, Introduction to Financial Math;

• Eighth Place - Fela Olaniyan, Noah Dolan and William Stephani, Partnership with a Business;

• Ninth place - Anayah Accilien, Public Speaking, and;

• Tenth place - Jules Perez, Data Security.

“The National competition in Georgia will be phenomenal! Our PVSD qualifiers will now compete with the top 4 from all states in the U.S. and the U.S. territories. Our students will continue to gain vast knowledge meeting students across the nation and other countries,” Hopely said.

“We are fortunate to have the support of Dr. Konrad, our School Board, Co-Principals Brian Boylan and Jonathan Ayre, and the community, enabling Pleasant Valley FBLA students to soar with academic rigor, challenges and collaborate with our countries leaders of tomorrow.”