Quick—think of the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “business.” Money? What, no, I was thinking of chocolate, obviously.

The Future Business Leaders of America club (FBLA) just competed at Hershey for the state competitions and the results are sweet to say the least.

Sunday April 7, all 15 Beaver Area competitors (myself included) and the two chaperones—Mrs. Lori Guandolo and Miss Ryleigh Bauer—drove the future business leaders across Pennsylvania to Hershey Lodge in a pair of school vans.

After asking junior and club member Ryan Groff if all the farmland that the van stopped by was bountiful, the club finally arrived to their hotel.

While the rooms weren’t ready until 4 p.m., the students enjoyed Hershey Park.

One good thing about arriving at the park on an off-season Sunday was the short lines and decent amount of time to explore Hershey.

The lodge itself was quite large, fitting the hundreds of club members from across the state. Even rumors of a “Tik Tok Rizz Pool Party” floated around on some of the shuttles returning to the lodge from the park.

Sadly, the pool party did not happen—at least not on Sunday.

Monday was the time for club members to actually compete in their respective subjects. These competitions included a wide variety of activities such as presentations, testing, and role play. No, not role play with costumes.

Numerous workshops also were available starting Monday and they varied from an ex-Paramount executive discussing his childhood growing up in his family’s movie theater to Taylor Swift’s impact on business.

Speakers from different parts of Pennsylvania hosted workshops to all of the club members from across the state. Some of the workshops were just colleges promoting themselves or the Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week promoting their weeklong program (which all students should participate in).

Unfortunately, not all of Beaver Area’s club members beat out the other 5000 attendees.

One testing group for marketing including senior Joe Mollura, junior Edward Quillan, and myself had to successfully get into the top 15 of marketing test scores in order to do a role play at Hershey. Our marketing skills were not enough though, dooming the chance of nationals for us.

Others actually had the opportunity to present Monday, however.

Juniors Quinn O’Leary and Sophie Burd were in a group for business ethics, proving quite better than their competitors as the day progressed.

Track runner, rabbit farmer, and businessman extraordinaire Ryan Groff took an agricultural business test in which he said that he did “okay.”

Senior Luke Paskey, junior Elizabeth Paskey, and junior Heath Korcinsky also presented Monday for sales. To be honest, watching their presentation made me want to buy that Apple Watch rip off they had in mind, so something must’ve been going for them.

All club members could watch their friends present which is exactly what we did for juniors Ava Mrkonja and Mia Malcom. The two girls’ presentation certainly did leave more of an impression than the last girl who funnily enough did end up flirting with one of the boys.

Four sophomores competed alongside their upperclassmen partners: Eleni Avdellas for intro to information technology, Alaina Malobabich for intro to business communications, Cali Coups for intro to event planning, and Daniel Wang for intro for financial math.

“The trip was educational and very fun,” said Wang.

Monday night was capped with every school heading to the Giant Center for the official opening night ceremony (even though the FBLA competition was already halfway over by this point).

During the ceremony, middle schoolers and a plethora of schools were highlighted for their exceptional work for their communities and all of the effort put forth into their respective club chapters.

Fortunately, the Beaver Area club took schools vans to and from the Giant Center without the need of the shuttles (the latest shuttle ride from the stadium was at 11:45 p.m.—yikes).

Tuesday was more relaxed and gave club members more opportunities to explore the attractions in Hershey.

The only presentation from Beaver Area was O’Leary and Burd’s finalist presentation for business ethics (forget the part where we showed up one minute late and weren’t allowed to watch).

Hershey’s Chocolate World and the local outlets were the main attraction of the day. Some students made their own chocolate bars while others shopped in American Eagle.

Once again, the end of the day had students gather in the Giant Center for the closing ceremony and awards for the top ten in each category.

Beaver Area managed to secure a few wins that night with Groff winning sixth place in the agricultural business category, O’Leary and Burd getting fifth place for business ethics, and Coups scooping up tenth place in introduction for event planning.

Beaver Area may not have secured any national qualifiers, but that doesn’t mean the importance of the event was lost. In fact, having such a fun experience invigorated the club even more.

Maybe next school year you could join FBLA and make nationals yourself. Sure would be fun discussing marketing with Mickey Mouse in Florida.