For the first time since the Future Business Leaders of America organization returned to in-person conferences, members of Cupertino High School FBLA won a first place award at the National Leadership Conference.
The awardees, Abhisek Buvanesh, Amrita Gundamalla and Shauryan Kanaujia, competed in the Community Service Project category. The three led a project focused on breast cancer awareness.
These students were accompanied by other top ten winners: Ishan Khosla, placing fourth in Introduction to Business Procedures, and third place winners Abhinab Chatterjee, Prashant Kondayapalepu and Brian Kuo for Website Design, and Jiansh Goel, Prashant Kondayapalepu and Sam Ethan Mathew for American Enterprise Project.
CHS Business teacher and FBLA advisor Aiden Hill described their journey abroad for the competition as extremely rewarding.
“When we went to Orlando, there were 17,000 kids from all over the country. So think about that. 17,000 kids, multiple people competing in every state. And we take number one in community service, and number three in American Enterprise. The best people in the world, the difference is so small. It’s all about preparation. So we really worked hard,” Hill said.
Hill took notes on what other winning teams did in past years, realizing that the team had to find a unique topic and introduce it with a twist to perform well at competitions.
COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT
Community Service Project Chair Abhisek Buvanesh partnered with the nonprofit organization Know Your Lemons to create a campaign raising awareness about breast cancer treatment and screening, including teaching lessons at local schools and distributing fliers to nearby cafès. After the State Leadership Conference in April, Buvanesh and his team aimed to implement their lesson plan in other Fremont Union High School District schools by reaching out to teachers. Shortly, Fremont High School teachers began implementing these lesson plans in their curricula, teaching them in their classrooms. They also collaborated with Stanford’s Breast Cancer Clinic and breast surgeon Candice Thompson, MD, to pass out postcards that featured the 12 signs of breast cancer they created to the patients.
Between SLC and NLC, Buvanesh realized he needed to broaden his scope of the project by incorporating feedback from the community. He learned that it was crucial to reference the opinions of community members instead of just the individuals working on the project. He interviewed CHS science teacher Kristi Kuehn in order to receive input for teaching children about breast cancer, as Kuehn teaches this topic in her physiology class.
Said Buvanesh, “I was able to work through the entire presentation, even though I messed up a little bit. I didn’t let that stop me from continuing. And I was letting my team members know that no matter what happens, we’ll be there to help in case they stumble or they’re confused for a minute.”
WEBSITE DESIGN
For the Website Design competition, third place winner Prashant Kondayapalepu’s team joined a nonprofit organization that had a significant impact on their community. Kondayapalepu was inspired to focus on the organization Feeding America.
“Its national outrage and solving hunger in America, which we thought was a really prevailing issue in both our community and within the nation,” Kondayapalepu said.
The website design team found the Wix platform extremely difficult to use as a team due to its lack of functions, so Kondayapalepu shared that winning this competition required precision above all else.
“We made sure that every site and every page on the website was tailored to perfection,” Kondayapalepu said, “and we made sure that all of the color contrasts … were exceeding whatever the judges expectations are. And I think that’s the biggest reason why we won.”
AMERICAN ENTERPRISE PROJECT
American Enterprise Project Chair and third place winner Sam Ethan Mathew led his team to reach their goal of promoting manufacturing in America. This project is an opportunity for students to showcase their understanding of the American economic system and impact on their community. Mathew and his team hoped to reach students in Cupertino, even reaching out to council member Kitty Moore.
Said Mathew, “Our goal for this year was to promote manufacturing [a source of economic stability instead of outsourcing from foreign countries], which we found out was decreasing in our society over the past few years. And what we want to do is bring it back into our school district.”
The American Enterprise team worked with Que Capital, a research publishing company for investors, to publish an article on spreading awareness about ideal stocks to invest in and using manufacturing to further the American Enterprise.
The team’s effort — holding weekly meetings and collaborating with school staff — was even noticed by the district, who gave them $1000 in funding for a 3D printer that they used to print their designs, helping them stand out. They also hosted workshops after school for CHS students to try out the 3D printer.
INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS PROCEDURES
Ishan Khosla, the fourth place Introduction to Business Procedures winner, had to complete the 100-question Business Procedures multiple choice test in one hour. He was inspired to participate in FBLA by his interest in business and his involvement in small family companies.
“I thought FBLA will be a pretty cool way to explore that interest. Then this was one of the competitions. Intro was good because it was my first year. And I feel it was nice to give me exposure to how it works,” Khosla said.
Khosla prepared for this test by taking the Principles of Business class at CHS, as well as using online resources to study.
THE FINAL DAY
After the long months of preparation, the results for the finalists were published early in the morning, depriving Buvanesh and his friends from sleep. “So we all got three, four hours of sleep at 5 am when we read all of our names and saw that American Enterprise, Community Service Project and Web Design all made it to the next round. You could feel the energy inside the room,” he said.
“Being up there on the stage, and then hearing placements being called from ten to one, when you hear your name in the fifth position, you gain some confidence and you’re like, ‘Okay, we placed highly,’ and so that felt really nice,” website design third place winner Chatterjee said.
The competitors were able to learn about new topics as well, creating an even more interesting journey for them. Seeing other chapters, the students found out how other competitors from states beside California were approaching their projects.
“We all helped each other out because it was not an individual competition. We were all in it together. And if one team succeeds, we all succeed. So we’re really open to helping anyone from Cupertino,” Buvanesh said.
“The competitions are really fun,” Khosla said. “You know, traveling with your schoolmates and having fun, enjoying yourselves, placing high of course, but also outside competition, just hanging out, getting to know each other, connecting with people you haven’t connected with before.”
Said Hill, “I’m super proud We did a great job. But we’re not going to get lazy, and we’re going to go back and we’re going to do even better. This coming year. That’s the goal.”
