Three Locals Among Seven Mo West Students Placing At FBLA Conference

Three local students are among the seven Missouri Western FBLA members that competed at the Collegiate FBLA State Leadership Conference in Springfield, Missouri earlier this month, earning a total of 12 top-5 finishes to advance to the National Leadership Conference in Atlanta in June.

Among those that competed are Taten Piepergerdes, a sophomore finance major from St. Joseph, who took 4th Place in Retail Management and 5th Place in Sports Management and Marketing. Michael Rader is a sophomore cybersecurity major from Cameron that finished 2nd Place in Computer Concepts, 2nd Place in Cyber Security and 2nd Place in Networking Concepts.

Also from the area is Andrew Spitzer-Fox a junior finance major from St. Joseph that took 1st Place in Social Media Marketing.

Four other students were also able to compete and qualify for nationals including the only other first place finish for the Griffins, which belonged to Jeffrey Henderson a junior computer science major from Grinnell, Iowa who took 1st Place in Programming Concepts.

Other moving on to nationals are Blake Goforth from Desloge, Missouri; Seth Hogue from Butler, Missouri, who is also serving as state president; and Caitlyn Thompson from Princeton, Kansas.