• Phi Beta Lambda students took top place at the national competition

Phi Beta Lambda students at the Eccles School take home national titles

Editor’s Note: The Phi Beta Lambda chapter at the David Eccles School of Business is celebrating after a very successful weekend at the 2019 PBL National Leadership Conference in San Antonio, Texas. We are very proud as many of our students placed highly in their events. Natasha Haslam, president of the chapter, tells us more about the organization and their Nationals experience. 

Our competition took place from June 23 to 28 and was for the organization Phi Beta Lambda (PBL).

The club essentially works in two competitions: State and Nationals. At State, our team members can choose from 60 events to compete in either small groups or individually, and they can be things like exams, interviews, planned presentations, or impromptu presentations. If they place in the top two (which our students often do), they qualify for Nationals! We had a lot of people qualify (I believe everyone who went to State did, which was 12 students), and four of us competed at Nationals.

Additionally, there are four State Officers, and all four are from the State of Utah this year!

President: Natasha Haslam
Executive Vice President: Landon Haslam
Vice President of Communications: Andrea Seager
Vice President of Marketing: Cheyenne Bigler

Landon and I represented the State of Utah at Nationals at the Region and State meetings.

At Nationals, there are often preliminary rounds as well as finals. The top 10 finalists line up on stage, then awards are given starting with 10th place, leaving first place for last. This makes it super dramatic, but so much fun! Our placings this year were as follows:

Natasha Haslam: Future Business Executive, 1st Place
Jacob Shanklin and Natasha Haslam: Financial Services, 2nd Place
Jacob Shanklin: Business Sustainability, 3rd Place
Wilson Liu: Project Management, 8th Place

I’m so excited that the chapter did so well! The state also performed amazingly, and we had lots of top-10 placings there, too. We were all extremely grateful for the Business Scholars program for supporting us and helping us get there.
PBL has been a huge factor in my collegiate development. The club teaches professionalism, responsibility, hard work, camaraderie, and industry-specific skills. Our chapter accomplished amazing things this year, and I’m so proud to be a part of the organization, especially with the University of Utah’s chapter. We practice together, we give each other tips and tricks on our events, we cheer each other on, and we celebrate our successes together. It’s a very supportive environment, and it’s wonderful to be a part of this. We’re grateful to the school, our amazing adviser, Alayna Williamson, and the state itself for helping us to succeed. I would highly encourage anyone and everyone to join, especially people who love competition, want to make lifelong friends, are interested in improving their skills, or are looking for fun.
For more information or questions about the organization, please email utespbl@gmail.com or visit their Instagram page @uofupbl.

Natasha Haslam is the Phi Beta Lambda state of Utah President and is a student at the David Eccles School of Business.

  • Looking for something specific?