Award-winning Bluefield College PBL members (front, left to right) Lydia Freeman of Bristol, Virginia; Jasmine Washington of Cleveland, Ohio; Elisabeth Willson of Amissville, Virginia; DeArra Darling of Powder Springs, Georgia; Courtney Dutton of Abingdon, Virginia; (back left to right) Ben Shumate of Bluefield, West Virginia; Tyler Giles of Roanoke, Virginia; Ed Folden of Richmond, Virginia; Bo M’Bala of Paris, France; Kenssy Quezada of New York, New York; Alex Jentzen of Queen Creek, Arizona; and Jordan Johnson of Chantilly, Virginia. Photo courtesy of Bluefield College

Students from Bluefield College’s chapter of Phi Beta Lambda, a national business student organization, recently competed in the PBL State Leadership Conference in Richmond and brought home 34 awards — more than any other college PBL team participating in the statewide academic competition.

Cary Carpenter of Southwest County won first place in the Mary B. McGinty Memorial Scholarship competition and second place in the Business Law competition. Carpenter also presented Team Bluefield College’s first-place “Community Service Project.”

In addition, Carpenter, president of the Bluefield College chapter of PBL, was elected to state office as secretary/treasurer for 2012-2013.

The 26 Bluefield College scholars competed against students from 12 other Virginia colleges, including Virginia Commonwealth, Radford, Emory and Henry, UVA-Wise, Longwood, and Sweetbrier.

The Bluefield College students developed business plans, designed service projects, offered presentations, participated in interviews, completed tests, and took part in other competitive activities en route to 14 first-place awards, 13 second-place prizes, and six third-place honors. The Bluefield team also was recognized as a bronze member of the Virginia FBLA-PBL Foundation.

For their success at the state level, 20 of the 26 BC students qualified for the national PBL competition in San Antonio, Texas, in June. In addition to competing in Richmond, Bluefield’s PBL team toured the Volvo Trucks North America New River Valley plant in Dublin, where alumni Zack Holderfield, a Volvo engineer, and James Osborne, a Volvo manager, arranged and guided the visit.

– Submitted by Chris Shoemaker, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Bluefield College