The Cerritos College chapter of Phi Beta Lambda, the largest collegiate business student organization, competed at the National Leadership Conference in Chicago, Illinois from Wednesday, June 24 to Saturday, June 27.

The NLC gave the 14 members of the Cerritos chapter an opportunity to participate in leadership competitions and attend educational workshops and exhibits.

“It was a great experience. We were up against some of the top schools in the nation, including four-year universities. However, we were fortunate that everyone in our team had experience in ASCC, which gave us an advantage,” Sana Khalid, PBL member said.

Among the schools that Cerritos College students competed against were Rutgers, U Penn. and University of Florida.

Cerritos College, UCLA, CSUF, College of the Canyons and UCSD were among the chapters representing California at the conference.

Khalid added, “I am very proud of not just my team, but every member who placed and won. Every one of our members proved that they deserve to be there and can compete with the best of the best.”

At the conference Khalid had the opportunity to sing the Star Spangled banner at the opening session.

She added, “It was a great opportunity! I’m happy to represent California and Cerritos College. Singing is one of my biggest passions and being able to show that we’re not only academically excellent but also have creative talents, it shows that we are a well-rounded school.”

According to Aldemar Sanchez, member of Cerritos PBL, the contests were hands-on challenges that placed participants in real-life business situations.

“For hospitality management we had to be research marketing analysts and try to find new ways of publicizing a new hotel branch with implementing the new trends happening in the hotel industry,” Sanchez said.

He added, “With parliamentary procedures we had to properly run a California state regular meeting consisting of attending their next NFLC in Baltimore, Maryland.”

Competitions were not the only thing Sanchez participated in as he was a voting delegate for Cerritos College in elections for the new national officers and managed Kevin Nguyen’s Western Region Vice President campaign.

The Cerritos College chapter participants who won awards were:

• · Sana Khalid, Aldemar Sanchez, Janet Parga, Anthony Gilmore- 5th place, Parliamentary Procedure.
• · Crystal Brosious, Roxanna Lopez, Johanna Hernandez- 4th place, HR Management
• · Johanna Hernandez-7th place, Retail Management
• · Jonathan Lam- 9th place, Networking Concepts
• · Jonathan Lam-9th place, Information Management
• · Olivia Rodriguez- Top 15 Finalist, Accounting
• · Roxanna Lopez, Aldemar Sanchez- 8th place, Hospitality
• · Sirena Holan=Top 15 Finalist, Business Communications and Managing Concepts
• · Kimberly Rios, Patricia Quezada- Top 15 Finalists, Marketing