Students from Montgomery County Community College’s chapter of Phi Beta Lambda, a professional business leaders club, recently won multiple awards at the Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda National Leadership Conference and Competition in San Antonio, Texas.  

Six chapter members - co-presidents Barry Hunsberger of Trooper and Nicoletta Pelchat of Lafayette Hill; Vice President Mike Antoine of Philadelphia; Treasurer Justin Ziegler of Harleysville; Secretary James Sovocool of Hatfield; and Loymi Peralta Cruz of Cheltenham -  competed with students from two- and four-year colleges from across the country during the three-day conference.

The team won eight awards in competitive events that challenge and reward students for excellence in a broad range of business, professional and career-related categories. In the individual competitive events, Antoine won fourth place in Financial Services, Ziegler won fifth place in Macroeconomics, Peralta Cruz won eighth place in Emerging Business Issues and Pelchat won tenth place in Public Speaking.

In team competitive events, the team of Peralta Cruz and Pelchat won fifth place in Business Sustainability and the team of Sovocool and Hunsberger won ninth place in Small Business Management Plan.

While the students excelled, MCCC faculty was also recognized at the conference. The club’s advisor, Faculty Diversity Fellow in Finance Damon T. Gray, won the 2019 Advisor of the Year for the State of Pennsylvania. This award honors PBL members who have made outstanding contributions to the association at the local, state and national levels.

Gray is proud of the work his students have done.

“I am humbled by their commitment to excellence,” he said. “These students come from a wide range of backgrounds, and together, they demonstrated the spirit of MCCC by creating their own momentum.”

Hunsberger, who also competed at the National Conference in 2018, is happy to see the team’s hard work be rewarded.

“We worked so hard for months practicing and preparing, just hoping to do our best,” he said. “It was incredible seeing every one of my teammates taking the stage to be recognized among the best in the nation.”

During their time in San Antonio, the MCCC students made connections and found new experiences. The team attended developmental workshop and networking events, saw the sights in San Antonio such as the Alamo and participated in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies.

Pelchat, Antoine, Ziegler, Sovocool and Peralta Cruz graduated in May with the MCCC class of 2019 and plan to continue their education. Hunsberger intends to graduate in spring of 2020 and enter the workforce.

FBLA-PBL is the largest career student business organization in the world. Each year, FBLA-PBL helps more than 230,000 members prepare for careers in business. PBL, the collegiate division of FBLA-PBL, has more the 350 chapters in 40 states with more than 8,100 members.