Junior Ashley Shamblen has qualified for Nationals in Future Business Leaders of America and Senior Haylee Carl has qualified for Nationals in Skills USA.

Ashley Shamblen said she qualified in the Sports and Entertainment Management area. She said she did this by taking a series of 100 question objective tests and placing well. She placed first in District 4 and fourth in Pennsylvania, she added.

The state competition was the hardest for her because she said she had to perform a case study. She was given 20 minutes to prepare a 7-minute marketing plan, she said, adding that the fourth-place finish in Pennsylvania landed her a spot in Nationals.

Ashley said that Nationals is from June 29-July 2. She added that Nationals was supposed to be held in Anaheim, Calif., but will now be held virtually due to Covid-19 restrictions.

To prepare, Ashley said that she is reviewing terms and different processes, as well as methods for proposals. She said that she is very excited to compete again.

“I am beyond excited because it is something I can look forward to in this tough time dealing with Covid,” she said.

Ashley said that she owes most of her success in FBLA to growing up with a family business. She explained that her mom owns a bakery/café within a tanning salon that she also owns. She added that her mom helped her study business and also gave her experience through working at the tanning salon.

“I truly think that growing up in a family owned by small business owners helped me learn first- hand some of the key principles of management,” she said.

The advice Ashley would give other FBLA members is to choose an area of the club that they are most interested in, she said. She added that this will give them more motivation to succeed.

Haylee said she qualified in the Employment Application Process area. She said she did this by placing first in the state competition. She added that the state competition was by far the hardest for her, but she came out on top. She said that the state competition was hard because she had no idea what to expect.

Haylee said that Nationals is from June 14-June 18. She added that the event was supposed to be held in Kentucky, but will now be held virtually over Zoom. She said that she is very excited for Nationals because she is the first person in Milton history to advance to that level in Skills USA. She said that she is preparing mentally by taking everything day by day.

Haylee said that she attributes most of her success to having the opportunity to work at internships and getting real work place experience. She added that Mrs. Smith’s coaching also helped her a lot.

“Some advice I would give out to my members is to push yourself and do something new because you’ll regret not doing it in the future,” she said.