Dream realized: La Pine team rises to top of national group

“I want to stand on that stage!” is what Trentyn Tennant of La Pine High School said to his mom a year ago while at the National FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) Conference in Anaheim, Ca. He was referring to the National Officer team of this organization. “No one but you is standing in your way,” was his mother’s response. This started the journey.

For the last year, Tennant, now entering his senior year, has worked diligently preparing to achieve this goal he set out for himself. It started with running a campaign for a state office position of Executive Vice-President of Oregon FBLA at the State Conference this last April. He was unanimously elected for this position, which then allowed him to run for a National Officer position.

Late nights and long days of planning, preparing, fundraising, rehearsing speeches, he ran a campaign on the platform of “Our Voice, Our Future.”

“I want to be the representative of our youth,” he said. “We are the future. If we believe we can make change, than who’s to stop us but ourselves?”

The year of preparing finally came down to the final week in Baltimore, Maryland- June 26-July1. at this year’s FBLA National Conference. During the week, Tennant ran a campaign for the National Office Position of Western Region Vice-President. This required interviews from board of directors, running a campaign booth, giving a speech in front of thousands of peers, having a question an answer time, and voting session.

Sunday evening July 1, Tennant achieved his dream and stood on the national stage in front of over 16,000 members, advisers and chaperones and was sworn in as this years 2018-2019 Western Region Vice President for FBLA.

This next year, he will represent 250,000 FBLA members as one of the nine members of the National Officer Team. He loves to share his passion of FBLA with others and wants everyone in middle school and high school to have the opportunities he has been given through this amazing program.

FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) inspires and prepares students to become community-minded business leaders in a global society through relevant career preparation and leadership experiences.