Cowley Press

Phi Beta Lambda students once again are going to nationals thanks to dedication and hard work. The students took part in the state wide competition held in Emporia on Feb. 25 and 26. 

The students worked in groups or by themselves and used online tests or performed interactive roles depending on the event.

The PBL’ers loaded up the vans, driven by accounting instructor Sarah Mathews and Business and Computer Applications Instructor Bethany Stewart.

Along the way people passed the time studying, listening to music or punching each other for every windmill they saw. 

When the group finally got there parking was not easy to find. The sponsor dropped off the students as close as they could to the competition hall. Once there, the students signed up for times to compete and listened to speakers.

The main speaker for the day was Scott Redler, chief operations officer for Freddy’s Frozen Custard. He discussed his background in the restaurant business when he first started as part of a catering service in college and worked his way up to being a COO.

As Redler presented his presentation, students asked questions and received coupons for free food and T-shirts from Freddy’s.

Following the speaker, the testing began. Most students breezed through their tests since they only had online classes while other students had all interactive roles. The students enjoyed eating from the Mexican lunch buffet and taking the tests. The group finished by 5 p.m. and headed back to the hotel to relax before going to eat out.

As dinner progressed the students talked about what they liked and did not like about the testing part. When dessert made it the students surprised Mathews with a happy birthday and she was surprised to say the least. After dinner the group went on to bowling.

After bowling the group went to Walmart to waste time and rent a few movies to watch for the night. The movies rented were The Hangover and Public Enemies.

The only problem was the TVs that were in the hotel did not have the right hookups for the DVD player and the students moved five TVs until they finally got the right one. Once that happened the group watched the movies and went to bed before getting up early to listen to speakers all day.

Some of the speakers the next day were interesting and others were boring. The awards banquet was great with the Italian buffet served. 

The winners of the impromptu speeches and public speaking gave their speeches. Freshman Jordan Lukert won the public speaking and gave his speech over savings.

The group won quite a number of awards and most all of them got the chance to head to nationals, which will be held in Nashville, Tennessee from July 9-12.

For the most part of the trip both the advisors and the students enjoyed their time. “It was a good time and a great experience for the students and the advisors,” said Mathews. “I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone and can’t wait to go to nationals,” said Lukert.

Overall, PBL did great and with time on their side the students will have plenty of time to study for their events at nationals.