Accompanied by business teacher and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) advisor Stephanie Wikner, MFL MarMac students Emme and Tyce Wikner and Skylar Fisk participated in the FBLA Middle and High School National Leadership Conference in San Antonio, Texas, earlier this summer. Emme and Tyce competed in broadcast journalism and Skylar in visual design, after advancing from the state competition this spring.
MFL MarMac had one national participant last year, and three more in 2026 shows strong growth for an FBLA program that is only a few years old.
“When I came in [as teacher], we had to do something more with this, and I just thought, ‘Let’s try competitions and see what happens,’” said Steph Wikner. “It’s fun. It gets them out of their comfort zone, and they get to see other people. Hopefully it opens their eyes. Business is really broad, and there’s a lot of different avenues to go down.”
Through broadcast journalism, the Wikner siblings had to select a story and showcase its importance in the community. They highlighted the Holiday Train and its impact on the Clayton County Food Shelf.
“We made a short two-minute video,” explained Emme. “We went and interviewed [supervisor] Utoni Ruff. She showed us around and how the Holiday Train brings in money and food for them. Our video highlighted the key parts and it had good information from what we’ve seen and our interview with her.”
Emme said judges liked that she and Tyce attended the Holiday Train and gathered their own clips.
“They also liked our speaking. How we presented ourselves was good,” she added.
In visual design, Skylar was tasked with designing a booth around the FBLA theme “Make Your Mark” that would attract people to join a club. She also had to deliver a presentation.
After learning they qualified, the students fundraised in order to attend nationals. Tyce said efforts included a golf tournament, where local businesses were encouraged to sponsor a hole or a team.
“Then we did Pizza Ranch fundraiser, where we had to serve as workers for a couple hours. We also did a 50-50 raffle,” he noted.
The students said that process was a learning experience in itself. They appreciated the community support to help them attend the conference from June 29 to July 2, where they not only competed, but could go to workshops and business presentations and network with business professionals, organizations, colleges and fellow participants.
“Over 10,000 kids showed up from 50 states plus Canada and Puerto Rico. There’s 35 events, and you get the top four per event per state. That’s a lot of people. You’re competing against the top of everybody in the U.S., so it’s a really good learning experience,” Steph said. “They also had fun things, like a game called Goose Chase. It’s an app on your phone and they ask you to shake hands with the president of FBLA and document it—get a picture. You can trade pins with people from other states. We had one that was a corn cob. Students get to mingle with each other.”
“There were just so many people you could go and talk to that you probably wouldn’t assume would be part of business. Like, there were Army and Air Force booths set up. That was pretty cool, to me, just to see all the different people, not even just the booths, but we ended up talking to two students from Georgia about their presentations,” Tyce shared.
Although a lot of people, Skylar said it was a rewarding experience.
“I was in the same building, for the same reason, as thousands of people. It made me feel good, like I did well enough to be with the best,” she reflected.
Participating in FBLA, overall, has been a good experience, the students said. Skylar enjoys that there’s always something to do and learn. Business offers something for everyone’s interests.
“Business is a very broad world,” Emme agreed. “There’s so many different categories that land under it, which I didn’t realize. And how much networking can really help you out in the future.”
