FIU FBLA-PBL students set records at national conference


A student body as diverse as FIU’s is a treasure trove of accomplishment, and thanks to the Panthers who excelled at last month’s 60th Annual National Leadership Conference in Orlando, the university has more reasons to be proud.

The brother-and-sister duo of Yelen and Jose Nuñez was among the Panthers who won first-place awards at the FBLA-PBL National Leadership Conference June 23-27.

The 16 students who participated in the competition are members of the university’s Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) chapter. They returned home triumphantly with 11 awards in several categories, including three first-place-in-the-nation recognitions.

Their wins set a new record for FIU FBLA-PBL, building on their nine in 2010. It also earned Panthers bragging rights as one of the only chapters to receive the most recognition in the nation from a pool of more than 400 chapters/universities in participation, and set a new record for Florida.

FIU FBLA-PBL also was recognized as a Gold Seal Chapter, a distinction given to chapters in the top 5 percent in the nation. The chapter also was named Florida’s FBLA-PBL chapter of the year at the conference, and was ranked in the national Top 10 for membership.

Senior Yelen Nuñez, 22, was named the top Future Business Teacher. This was her first time participating in the conference, an experience she describes as “amazing.”

“The event included an interview for the preliminary round and then I had to present a lesson plan,” the mathematics major and education minor said. “My lesson plan was based on different options that banks offer for investment and I actually got to teach it at my high school and present the results to the judges.”

Even though she competed in an individual event, she says her win was a veritable team effort.

“When I won, I could not believe it. All I remember is hearing the screams from my chapter,” she said. “I could not have done it without everyone’s support.”

The conference was a family affair for Nuñez, whose brother, Jose, also nabbed a first-place award with his Integrated Marketing Campaign Team, for their campaign for Chevy. He and teammates Michael Perez and Juan Zambrano took a plan they had implemented at FIU last fall – promoting three Chevy cars to students on campus – and worked on every detail of a fully formed campaign for the car manufacturer.

“We had to come up with a full campaign,” Perez said. “It was a team effort, working on everything from the theme to the promotional materials. Because we had already rolled out the campaign on campus we had tangible results to show, which gave us a bit of an edge.”

And how did Jose Nuñez, 19, a marketing hopeful who will begin his sophomore year in the fall, feel about seeing his sister win her first award?

“I was literally more excited to see her take her win than having won first myself,” he said. “It was great seeing how far she’s come since joining FIU FBLA-PBL. She was really scared of competing at first, but as nationals rolled around, the only honor acceptable to her was first place. It was amazing to see how our organization injected the competitive spirit in her blood.”

Congratulations to everyone on Team FIU:

1st Place in the Nation:

Free Enterprise Project – Louis Castillo, Bruno Cevallos and Michael Perez

Future Business Teacher – Yelen Nuñez

Integrated Marketing Campaign Jose Nuñez, Michael Perez and Juan Zambrano

2nd Place in the Nation:

Largest Membership in the Southern Region – FIU FBLA-PBL

Local Annual Business Report – Claudia Capdesuñer and Bruno Cevallos

3rd Place in the Nation:

Business Presentation – Bruno Cevallos and Gedma Estrada

Government/ Civic Awareness – Yanyn San Luis (Professional Division)

7th Place in the Nation:

Sales Presentation – Saad Munaf

9th Place in the Nation:

Emerging Business Issues – Eric Lopez and Angie Navarrete

10th Place in the Nation:

Networking Concepts – Laura Alonso