Twenty-two students at Marian Catholic High School, Hometown, have advanced to the 2026 Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America Leadership Conference to be held April 13-15 at the Giant Center, Hershey.

They qualified for the statewide competition, which is expected to be one of the largest FBLA competitions to date, by finishing in the top three positions in their categories during the recent Region 29 competition, which included over 200 students from nine high schools in the region. The qualifying competition was held virtually on Zoom.

According to Jake Sarwar, state FBLA virtual chapter coordinator/Region 29 adviser, Wilkes-Barre, at the beginning of the school year, members begin looking into over 70 competitive events from which to choose. The events vary from objective tests like accounting, real estate and journalism, to performance events like public speaking, impromptu speaking and even sales presentation.

He said the virtual chapter is designed to reach out to students whose schools do not have an organized FBLA chapter and would not otherwise be able to take advantage of membership in Pennsylvania FBLA and national FBLA.

Marian teacher Joseph Sterns is the students’ in-school adviser.

Marian students advancing by finishing in first place in their respective competitions included: Gavin Zola, Accounting; Madison Biros, Agribusiness; Minhyuk Kim, Insurance & Risk Management; Kylie Kisenwether, Introduction to Supply Chain Management; Jah Bushati, Damian Rodino and Darren Paulino, Sports & Entertainment Management; Chloe Cannon and Lexi Gelatko, Introduction to Social Media Strategy; Kali Grochowski and Alena Lombardo, Sales Presentation; and Zoe Johnstone, Business Law.

Qualifying as runners-up in their respective categories were Conner Giannelli, Introduction to FBLA; Gia DeCosmo, Introduction to Supply Chain Management; Scarlett Infante, Destiny Melendez and Andreas Merenda, Introduction to Business Presentation; and Isabel Rista and Margaret Zeiler, Sales Presentation; while gaining third-place finishes and qualification were Malina Letcher, Advertising; and Griahnny Santos-Urena, Personal Finance. Teaghan Biros qualified as a member-at-large.