The Cerritos College Phi Beta Lambda club went to the State Business Leadership Conference in Santa Maria and came back with a total of 17 awards, 14 awards from individual competitions and three awards from team competitions.

The State Business Leadership Conference took place from March 29-31 and it consisted of workshops and competitions. PBL clubs from colleges such as Las Positas Community College, College of the Canyons, Diablo Valley College and Cerritos College and others, all competed and attended events.

The rankings system consisted of first to fifth place. First was gold, silver was second, third was bronze and fourth and fifth had the rightful numbers.

The winners from Cerritos College from individual competitions were:

Anthony Gomez

• Impromptu speaking, gold

Jessica Avellaneda

• Networking concept, gold

TiNa Vejar

• Financial Literacy, bronze
• Administrative Technology, bronze
• Business Communication, silver
• Career Memberships Award Program, Director Level
• Who Is Who California Award

Matthew Nagata

• Accounting Principle, fourth place

Adriana La Fuentes

• Client Service, silver
• Retail Management, fourth place
• Justice Administration, fifth place

Denver Brown

• Programming Concepts, fifth place
• Computer concept, silver

Itzzayaana Jarquin

• Sales Presentation, silver

The winners for team competitions were:

Matthew Nagata, Edwin Ng and Josue Villata

• Financial Analysis and Decision Making, fourth place
• Marketing Analysis and Decision Making, bronze

Anthony Gomez, Adriana La Fuentes and TiNa Vejar

• Management and Decision Making, bronze

“This is my second State Conference,” said PBL vice president, Vejar.

Vejar won five awards. Four in individual competition and one in team competition.

“I believe this positive outcome is the return on investment that our members have put their hard work into the conference.

“I just want to say this entire conference would not be possible for Cerritos PBL without sponsorship from ASCC, professors and businesses,” she said.

President of PBL at Cerritos College, Jarquin was surprised and happy at the outcome of the club’s success.

“Competitors have worked hard… I was surprised because the members that we had were new to coming to this conference received awards, and it is very interesting to see not only members that we see compete all the time, but to have new ones come to join and also win,” Jarquin said.

The team of Nagata, Ng and Villata were pleased with the outcome of the competition.

“I feel like we really bonded as a team coming together for our first competition,” Nagata said, “We’re glad that we were able to win some awards and really show our talents and our skills that we’ve acquired from school, from experience in life. The bond that we created, the communication was really there.”

Ng said that he feels more motivated then he was when he first walked into the conference.

“We’re motivated now because we won some awards and as a team, we share the credit and it was a really good experience,” he said.

The first day of the conference was opened up by a keynote address from U.S air force Colonel Michael S. Hough, where talk about how to be successful in life.

The second day consisted of workshops and competitions throughout the day. The day ended with a picnic at the park across the street from the hotel called Hagerman Sports Complex. All sorts of sports and actives took place there.

The final day consisted of announcements of awards upon which Cerritos College and other schools obtained.