Black River Falls High School, Future Business Leaders of America are preparing for this year’s regional competition.

“My role as advisor is just to help facilitate what specifically the officers want to do in the club. So, if the officers want to put something together for Empty Bowls, I just purchased the materials that we needed,” said Johnson. “Also if they want to go on a trip, I help facilitate that as well, but I really like it to be student-run club. I do the things that I need to do to help the officer team come up with want we want to do,” said Johnson.

By helping to advise this group of students, Johnson also help students who are planning on competing in different events.

“There’s a lot of different things that we do within the club, but specifically when it comes to competition, kids do a number of different things to prepare. They can study some of the tests, there’s some events that are just taking tests that showcase that they have the most knowledge of everyone in that event. Other times kids are doing speeches or other kinds have presentations. Lastly, others have 10 to 15 minutes to prepare for their topic to present in front of judges.” said Johnson.

“My group and I are making a video for Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday is around Thanksgiving and it’s a day dedicated to doing charitable things to help people who are in need around the holidays,” said senior Abigail Ross.

Most events take a lot of time to prepare for the regional competition.

“We spend about 20 minutes a day day just interviewing people and getting film and editing. It all adds up every day, and we are actually getting quite a bit of film for our video,” said Ross.

Competition at regionals can be difficult due to the amount of students competing in that event.

“I think that we will move on to state this year after regionals because we have been working really hard on our video and taking the time to do so. We have been making sure that are meeting everything on the rubric that the judges judge us on and I think we are going to do a good job,” said Ross.

Ross and her teammates are involved in a special category where they don’t actually have to show up at the Regional competition.

“Since we are making a video we don’t actually have to be at the Regional competition. We are going to be submitting our video at a earlier date than the actual competition so that the judges can look at and judge our video as much as they want. However, if we do advance to state, then we will have to go and speak to the judges and answer any questions they may have about our video,” said Ross.

Most members are working hard on their project as the deadline of Regionals is approaching quickly. The competition will be held on Saturday, February 2, at Cochrane Fountain City High School.