Above: From left are Angela Butler, Alexis Bounds, Peter Mersdorf, Charda Boone, Maddie Groue, Austin Lee, and Sadie Hebert. (Butler and Hebert are co-advisers for PBL at the Perkinston Campus.)

Four students from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College won at the Phi Beta Lambda National Leadership Conference on June 23-28, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. During the conference, students competed against other community college and university PBL chapters from all across the nation.

Winners were Peter Mersdorf, of Lucedale, and Austin Lee, of McHenry, Website Design, first place; Austin Lee and Peter Mersdorf, Computer Animation, second place; and Maddie Groue, of Ocean Springs, and Charda Boone, of Moss Point, Desktop Publishing, fifth place.

In addition to the competitive events, the students attended numerous workshops on topics such as team-building, leadership, and dressing for success. Alexis Bounds, of Biloxi, represented Mississippi PBL as the state president during the Institute for Leaders portion of the conference. Sadie Hebert was recognized as the Mississippi PBL Outstanding Local Chapter Adviser.

This is the fifth year in a row that the MGCCC Perkinston PBL Chapter has won first place in a national event. Most performance events require a preliminary round and a final round; therefore, students actually compete twice at nationals. The top ten in each event are given trophies and the top three also win cash prizes.

Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. is the largest career student organization in the world, helping over 250,000 members prepare for careers in business. The PBL Competitive Events program allows college students to compete in categories like technology, public speaking, business, finance, management, and more.