HANCOCK COUNTY, W. Va. (WTRF) – Local students from Hancock County, W. Va traveled to Anaheim, Calif. for a national competition this summer and came home with a win.
After placing first at the state level, Oak Glen’s FBLA members Jessa Fields and Lexi Rhodes went onto the national competition where they placed fourth out of 15.
RELATED: Oak Glen High School’s FBLA Club wins big at State Competition, 8 members move on to nationals
But before making it to the final round, Fields and Rhodes had to compete against 90 other participants from across the nation within the American Enterprise Project Category.
Fields and Rhodes conducted research about Oak Glen’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site, specifically looking at the populations served by the program and its impacts.
As a certified VITA site, Oak Glen’s FBLA members can help low to moderate income families and individuals file their taxes for free.
RELATED: West Virginia high school certified by IRS for second year to help with basic income tax returns
Last tax season, they helped file over 100 tax returns, saving the community thousands of dollars in preparation fees.
Taking their experiences from VITA to California was a little nerve-racking, but Fields and Rhodes say they were proud to represent the Mountain State.
There’s a lot of pressure to even make it to the finals. And you know we love this project so much. And I think that helped us a lot by being able to relate to that. And you know, that helped us go forward too.”
Lexi Rhodes | Oak Glen High School
Ultimately, I think we had a lot of fun with it. We love this project. We relate to it on a like lot of different levels. It was fun and I appreciate the judges giving their time to us, to see our project and see what we do.”
Jessa Fields | Oak Glen High School
Other FBLA Members say they were shocked but ecstatic when they heard Oak Glen’s name called out on the national stage.
When they got the fourth-place trophy, all of us were screaming and we felt it the next morning.”
Kevin Blake | Oak Glen High School
For club advisor Tina Viakley, having these state and national titles is especially impressive considering the high school has only had an FBLA chapter for two years.
They did awesome this year. We have a lot of accolades. We won the Silver Champion Chapter – that’s a national program. We were in the running for chapter of the year at the state level – we were runners up for that. And, then this [winning at nationals] just was the icing on the cake.”
Tina Viakley | FBLA Club Advisor
Viakley went on to say that seeing her students grow in knowledge and confidence has been rewarding for her as a teacher and club advisor.
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