Awesome ideas, thanks Jsteez 
I’m a bit late to this conversation, but I would highly recommend joining FBLA! I’m a sophomore and joined FBLA last year, placed third in my event at state, and qualified for nationals (which probably looks really good on college apps, especially since I was the first freshman from my school to qualify for nationals in four years).
Join FBLA even if you’re not interested in business. There are plenty of events related to topics such as computer programming, math, and film making. Depending on what state you live in, it’s not difficult to qualify for state/nationals and gain leadership positions in it.
It’s not a huge time-consumer because you work on your event out of school, which can take anywhere from three (I studied for my state test for three hours) or weeks, depending on the difficulty and competitiveness of your event.
At my school, it isn’t too late to join FBLA yet, and I hope it’s the same at your school.
Hope you join! :))
Thanks so much for the thorough and well-elaborated response.
As it turns out, I did actually end up joining my school’s FBLA chapter and I’m planning on entering 2 competitions (with my main focus being on the Coding challenge). I may also attempt to enter computer animation.
In an average year, how many hours do you spend working on your project and over what time span? My current plan is to crank out some serious hard work over Thanksgiving & Christmas break, probably totaling around 60 hours of work time on the project.
That’s great! Last year, I took an objective test, and studied for around 20 hours.
This year, I’m planning on doing Website Design, and will probably do exactly what you’re doing. I think I’ll spend more time on mine though, because my goal is to place either first or second in my state.
Good luck!
That’s interesting to hear… my school’s chapter encourages students to participate in multiple events, so I’ll have to take the time to evaluate how I should splice up my break.
I’m also seeking to do well at state and perhaps I should be devoting more time as well.
Let me know what you come up with and good luck!
Same, mine does too (but only for area) since we aren’t allowed to compete in multiple events at state/nationals (not sure if this is a rule for every one or for every state though). I’ll also be taking Business Communications as a backup event if I don’t qualify for state in Website Design.
Is there some way I could message you here? I don’t want everyone else who posted on this thread to get a notification everytime lol
I’ve reconsidered and have also decided on Web Design, along with Intro to IT. I was originally going to go along the route of E-Business, but the website task seems quite complex for my first year.
You can PM me directly through CC