Cerritos College Phi Beta Lambda club member and math major Raquel Ramirez is pretty excited that she won three competitions in the California Phi Beta Lambda State Business Leadership Conference.

She won fourth place for microeconomics and macroeconomics. Along with those she placed fifth place in business communication.

About 30 PBL members attended and dressed in business attire throughout the conference. Twelve members won competitions at the conference which took place in Ontario, Calif. on April 5 and 6.

Some students worked in groups of two and three, while others worked on their own to compete.

PBL national president Donnie Isorio said that the competitions are great because they are not geared to just only business students. “They’re geared toward anyone that is interested in business.”

Two-year schools and four-year schools take part in the conference.

Seven students from the PBL at Cerritos College that were ranked from first to third in their competitions will now move up to compete in the PBL National Leadership Conference in Anaheim from June 22 to June 25.

Adviser for PBL and business administration instructor Jerry Ramos has pride for the students. He said that what students learn at Cerritos College has helped them through competitions.

“To see these milestones that they’re awarded, acknowledged, but not only that, at the same time they can compete with UCs,” Ramos said.

Economics and finance major Mychal Thomson attended the conference for the first time.

“I (competed in) Economic Analysis and Decision Making, and Emerging Business Issues.” He worked closely with two other students in PBL and was supposed to do the same with his second competition but he ended up working by himself.

Thomson won third place with PBL member Juan Alcala for Emerging Business Issues.

Not every PBL member attended the conference.

“They made a huge mistake not coming. I recommend anybody to try and (attend conferences). The business world may not be exactly where you’re going. It deals with all kinds of sectors, hospitality, consumer goods,” said Thomson.

He shares his views on the conference, “This type of conference, in this atmosphere, will help give you a gain more perspective (of the business world). If you want to move forward in your life this is the one place to do it.”

As his first semester as PBL president, business law major Zeus Avalos stated that the club’s role is to insure that the members in the club have a better understanding of how corporate America works, and teach how to be ethically and morally correct in business.

“This is the first year that preparedness is enforced,” Avalos said.

“I’m very happy to mention that (the PBL club members) have been training for the last three months. We’ve really emphasized in training. Every member that is here has participated in some sort of knowledge or testing event.”

With members going through competition, Avalos said that students get a synopsis of what businesses in America expect from leaders, managers and employees.

“It gives them the sense of the same kind of urgency, same type of passion as they would in a career. It’s a mock trial on what is to be expected to be successful as employees, leaders, or their own boss ,” he continued.

“I am very proud of everybody’s effort here.”

Prior to the conference, PBL students had the help of economics instructor Solomon Namala and accounting instructor Mark Fronke.

Ramos said that their dedicated time helped students for the competitions and was proven by the work they put into.