Rising to the Top: Debate and FBLA Advance to State and Nationals

ACHIEVE: The FBLA club attends regionals. FBLA is a newly founded club at VHS and they have already made a big achievement by qualifying for state. Photo Courtesy of Olive Alpen.

This year our Debate and Future Business Leaders of America clubs have had a very successful year where students from the clubs have made it to state. After a few months of competitions, the debate team was able to attend state after some of the members qualified in their events. After its initiation just last year, the FBLA team prepared for several months for the events and tests they would be competing in. Following their participation in regionals, most of the team managed to qualify for state where they will be competing for a chance to make it to nationals. 

Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) started last year after student Olive Alpen brought the idea of starting a business club to Vashon High School counselors. VHS has a lack of business classes, and many students are interested in studying business in college.

“With the limited business courses offered at the school, the club did great representing it with the learning resources we had,” sophomore Olive Alpen said.

Since the club was started after the regionals competition last year, students had more time to decide what they wanted to compete in and prepare. FBLA is a national organization that allows students to develop leadership and business skills through competitive events and real world experiences. Events include presentations where students prepare their slideshow and present in front of judges, and the other competing event is role play. In this event, students must take a 60 minute preliminary test with 100 questions on the topic they are competing in like Intro to Information Technology for this specific event questions can be about computers and various vocabulary words, which determines whether they advance to the next round. In the next round, they complete a role play that usually lasts 7-10 minutes. For role play events, students spend time studying  for their event they will be competing for since they don’t know what their prompt will be for the role play. Students may receive prompts that require them to take on a professional role, like advising a business on how to increase sales or solve a workplace issue within a limited time frame. 

“We practice our role-play scenarios by prepping 7 minute presentations in 20 minutes and we have practiced these in front of community business leaders to get feedback,” Alpen said.

Throughout the year, FBLA has been able to bring various speakers to VHS varying from local business owners to important business people. Sara Easterly is the VHS FBLA mentor, she is an author and resident of the island. Easterly was part of FBLA when she was in high school.  Easterly has helped shape the club into what it is today with all of the hard work she has done since the start of FBLA. Through her dedication, students receive strong support, especially through feedback on their presentations that encourage them to continue improving. She arranges for all of the guest speakers as well as arranging for students to participate in state and in regionals. 

“I am so proud of these students, who’ve been studying independently and practicing a lot to prepare for State competition, in addition to staying on top of their usual school work and fundraising. I can't wait to see where they go at state and in their careers,” Easterly stated. 

Debate, on the other hand, is a club that has been offered at VHS for many years, after a long time of it not being offered at VHS it recently made its comeback and they have proven to come back stronger than before.This year students qualified for state for the first time in over two decades. After competing in multiple tournaments through the season, VHS students earned their place at the state tournament by consistently performing well in their events. Students Hannah Hillis, Iylaf Almustafa, Carter Harmon, and Emily Rock have all qualified for nationals, marking a major accomplishment for the team.

“We are all really proud and excited to go to the state competition. Debate at Vashon has been revived in the past two years, and we are all ecstatic to qualify and just be there, considering it is the first time in years,” junior Willa O’Reilley said.

Throughout the season, debate students spend a significant amount of time preparing both in and outside of school. After-school practices focus on discussion based learning, where students break down topics, define key terms, and develop argumentative strategies. They also spend time researching evidence, sharing their findings among the team and building strong cases for competition use. In addition to the strong skill building and research, students spend time doing practice debates to strengthen their skills.

“I practice a lot for tournaments. Every Monday after school, I go to Lincoln Douglas practice until 4:30. These practices help me work on my argumentation skills and practice thinking on my feet. I also practice for my interpretation events a lot too. I meet with Mrs. Wilke on Wednesdays to practice these events. I also like to run my lines at home and watch other versions of the piece to develop my understanding of the character,” said junior Hannah Hillis.

Although FBLA and debate are different in various ways, they both have grown great communities for students and parents. Debate has been around for much longer than FBLA but they both share similarities like the mandatory business attire needed for competitions and similar preparation for competition events. The best part is the opportunity to represent VHS at such a high level among schools that are much bigger.

COMPETE: VHS Debate team is sending students to nationals after a successful competition season. The Debate team advances to nationals after two decades of not qualifying. Photo Courtesy of Hannah Hillis.