Brighton High students are making a name for themselves in the business world.

Four students will compete at the national FBLA leadership conference June 27-30 in Atlanta as three students, sophomore Elijah Ricks, senior Lily Hughes and senior Eliza Griffiths, recently returned from Orlando where they competed in contests at the DECA international career development conference.

“It’s been exciting to see these students excel in competitions as well as gain leadership skills in business,” said adviser Kevin Elzey, who has coordinated efforts with co-adviser Josiah Price for the past 18 months. “Our two chapters work together to help students; for those competing, some choose one chapter while others compete in both.”

The four students who will compete in FBLA nationals are sophomore Zach Condon, who placed third in intro to business procedures at state, and a team of seniors Jackson Evers, Ezra Park, Wes Christensen, who took ninth place in sports and entertainment management.

Twenty-eight Brighton students competed at FBLA state against more than 1,000 students from 78 schools. Other top 10 finishers include senior Daniel Machado Quintana, sixth place in securities and investments; and the team of seniors Clayson Woodward, Caden Beames and Machado Quintana, ninth place in banking and financial systems.

The two organizations have similar goals, hence Brighton encompassed both to form the business club.

DECA, which prepares high school and college students to become leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management, had students representing some of the more than 3,600 high school chapters at its international conference.

FBLA, which prepares more than 230,000 members for careers in business, encourages students to become community-minded business leaders in a global society through career preparation and leadership experiences. 

The school’s business club not only supports them through competitions, but also in service activities, running the school store and hosting guest speakers, Elzey said.

“There's so much crossover, we just felt it best for the students to have the business club,” he said. “We’ve been able to have more students take part in activities.”

This year, the chapters opened the school store, created a plan and ran it as a business, selling lunchtime items and snacks. Proceeds are earmarked to support students who compete internationally in DECA or FBLA, Elzey said.

“It’s beneficial to our school community to have it operate, and at the same time, our business kids are learning the ins and outs of running a business, and we get to help support our student body,” he said, adding that it was modeled after other high school stores in Canyons School District.

Not only did business students get hands-on experience, but about 80 students took a backstage tour of Hale Centre Theatre before getting firsthand insight from the business manager.

“They asked the business manager questions like how they run their business and about the whole process in moving it from West Valley City to Sandy and gained some insight into the field of the entertainment and business,” Elzey said.

Many business club members also attend the Lunch and Learn speakers, which is an opportunity available to any Brighton student to learn from professionals. 

More than 100 students listened to Dan Pawlowski, senior product manager-technical for Amazon Prime, who shared his part in getting the NFL broadcasts on Amazon Video, he said.

“He was key on that project, so it was really fun for him to speak to our students and walk them through the process and through the account management and marketing and product development of the NFL. This was the first year that the NFL broadcasts were on Amazon Prime, and he was in the thick of it, so he shared his insights and that inside story,” Elzey said. “The kids are really engaged in learning from these professionals, so we’re wanting to bring in more next year as well as take more field trips to help grow these parts of our program.” λ