Five Spears School students qualify for FBLA-PBL National Leadership Conference

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

FBLA-PBL winners at Oklahoma Leadership Conference — From left, Drew Burkhart, Michael Gotwald, Craig Compton, Nicholas Keen, Aaron Barker and Morgan Melot (front row) were six of the seven students representing the Spears School of Business at the FBLA-PBL Oklahoma Leadership Conference earlier this month.

Five Spears School of Business students have qualified to attend the FBLA-PBL (Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda) National Leadership Conference after award-winning performances at the Oklahoma Leadership Conference earlier this month.

The five students – Aaron Barker, Reilee Berger, Drew Burkhart, Nicholas Keen and Morgan Melot – earned the opportunity to represent Oklahoma State University and the Spears School at the National Leadership Conference June 21-25 in Anaheim, Calif.

“Our students placed exceptionally well in their events and I am proud of their hard work and professionalism as they represented OSU and the Spears School at this statewide conference,” said Sarah Chabinak, senior academic counselor in the Spears School and OSU’s FBLA-PBL adviser.

OSU sent seven students to the state conference in Norman on April 4-6, and six of them placed among the top three in their respective competitions:

Aaron Barker, business junior: first place, Analysis & Decision Making; second place, Project Management;
Reliee Berger, entrepreneurship freshman: first place, Management Concepts;
Drew Burkhart, accounting senior: second place, Statistical Analysis; third place, Financial Concepts;
Michael Gotwald, computer engineering sophomore: third place, Make a Difference Award (95.5 hours of community service);
Nicholas Keen, agribusiness junior: first place, Human Resource Management;
Morgan Melot, accounting junior: first place, Future Business Executive; first place, Statistical Analysis.

In addition, OSU was named a Silver chapter for demonstrating outstanding participation in local, state and national projects. Melot was elected as Oklahoma PBL Executive Vice President for 2013-14. Also, Chabinak was selected to take over in June as state adviser for Oklahoma FBLA-PBL after serving as state officer team adviser the past two years.

FBLA-PBL is the largest business career student organization in the world. More than 11,000 college students are involved in postsecondary division chapters.