A team of 28 Bridgewater-Raritan High School students, who have aspirations to be entrepreneurs one day, spent the start of the summer vacation in Anaheim, California.
The students, who are members of Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club, participated in the 2025 FBLA National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Anaheim from Saturday, June 27, through Thursday, July 3.
They were accompanied at the Hilton Hotel and Anaheim Convention Center by their two Bridgewater-Raritan High School FBLA Co-Advisors, Keriann Fry and Mike Bittner.
The 28 students qualified for the NLC by successfully competing in both regional and state conferences.
Five Bridgewater-Raritan High School students placed in the top 10 of their event to gain national recognition.
Those five students who placed in the top 10 were Natalie Chen, who placed third in Business Law, Vedaang Verma, who finished third in Data Analysis, Vrishank Madishetty, who placed fourth in Intro to Programming, Anvay Ajmera, who placed seventh in Website Design, and Rishi
Khanna, who finished eighth in Intro to Business Procedures.
Anvay shared his experiences.
“Website Design marked a large shift for me from my last year’s event. This year, I
competed against many great individuals with professional coding backgrounds and even got the chance to connect with them,” Anvay said. “I’m really grateful to FBLA for teaching me
website development.”
Bridgewater-Raritan High School FBLA students not only thrived in the national conference, which includes an estimated 15,000 members, but they also enjoyed their trip and connected with fellow future entrepreneurs.
The Bridgewater-Raritan students participated in a pin trading activity, where FBLA members traded pins of different states/territories and even bought them. The Bridgewater-Raritan team also visited Disneyland Park on the final day of the conference, where they enjoyed an exciting day of rides, activities, and bonding.
Overall, according to the Co-Advisors and the students, they were all thrilled to have had the opportunity to participate in another annual NLC.
The Bridgewater-Raritan contingent all agreed that the experience is not only a testament to the chapter’s excellence in leadership and the multidisciplinary fields of business but also an unforgettable memory of discovering new passions and people.