Area student represents and wins at FBLA nationals

By Rachel Mergen

Jonathan Breuer, at the age of 16, was officially the first to ever qualify, compete and win at National Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) for River Ridge. He traveled to Anaheim, Calif., earlier this month with FBLA members Bea Mumm and his sister Rebecca, his adviser Tina Dilley and her husband Troy, for a life-changing experience that would lead to third place in the nation.

“I did the project so I could learn,” Jonathan said as he looked back on the simple start of a long journey. FBLA had determined the topic of his contest, 3D animation, as “Go Green.” He began researching and brain-storming about this theme in September 2016. For the next six months, he would find himself spending hundreds of hours creating what would eventually, according to Tina, “completely blow the judges away.”

Jonathan had little prior experience with 3D animation. He taught himself everything he needed to learn.

The first step was to draft his script and create a story line. From that point on, he began forming 3D models, animating, rendering, creating frames and clips and eventually adding sound effects at the end. He described adding bones to his models, allowing them to move through the scenes. 

To simplify, he said, “It was a lot like when stop-motion movies are created, but inside a computer.” Similar to stop-motion movies and live-action films, he built objects and materials and considered lighting, along with a multitude of other factors.

Jonathan created every single image completely from his own imagination, unlike other creators who pulled factors from other places. He paid close attention to each detail. In addition, he even composed his own music for the background of the video. 

“Jonathan spent tons of time working on his 3D animation. He was always on his laptop at home rendering, and since his laptop didn’t have the capacity to render his whole video in time, he had the program he needed installed on many of the computers in Mrs. Dilley’s room. He was in Mrs. Dilley’s room every day during his study hall checking to make sure the rendering process was going smoothly,” Rebecca stated about the development stages of the project. Tina helped Jonathan throughout the process, which included allowing him to run his programs on multiple school computers at once. 

For software, Jonathan used Blender, a free program that has the same tools companies like Pixar use to create their movies. “I thought the software was fun to play around with,” he said.

During the process of the project, Tina was thrilled to see Jonathan’s “passion, determination and dedication.” These traits helped push him through the great amount of work that was necessary. 

For FBLA contests, there are normally three levels—regionals, state and nationals—but 3D animation skipped the regional level. At state, Jonathan received second place, an award he wasn’t even at the ceremony to personally accept because of participation in track.

“I was pretty excited [when I received second]. All the work I put in paid off,” Jonathan mentioned about the state contest.

Many local businesses contributed to the expensive trip to California. Half of the trip was paid for by such donations. In addition, fundraising was done by the entire River Ridge FBLA chapter. FBLA members sold school apparel and Rural Route 1 popcorn and held a dodgeball tournament to raise the additional amount needed. 

“It’s so nice to see a student who poured so much into it be rewarded,” Tina said. Jonathan completed two presentations at nationals. During the first presentation, only he and the judges were allowed in the room. There were some technical difficulties during this round, but he advanced to the finals. 

The final round allowed for viewers. Jonathan hinted at the fact that he was nervous, but Tina said, “He took everything so seriously that you didn’t see his nerves. It was a very intense presentation.”

Each finals presenter had seven minutes to impress the judges, with five of those minutes planned for setting up. With Jonathan’s projector having issues throughout nationals, a “nerve-wracking” moment came when he wasn’t able to ready his project until his five minutes was seconds away from concluding. 

Rebecca described her experience of the final round from the perspective of an audience member, “Mrs. Dilley, Bea and I were all sitting in the front row and it was extremely nerve-wracking, because we couldn’t say anything to help Jonathan. Thankfully, he got it figured out just in time, and we were all relieved. We could tell that the judges loved Jonathan and his video. 

“One of the judges and Jonathan had this total nerd moment when the judge asked him about how he did the lighting of the subway in his video. Jonathan responded with something about how he used different layers, and the judge knew exactly what he was talking about. 

“Another moment that Mrs. Dilley, Bea and I agree sold Jonathan’s presentation was when he was talking about how he composed and played the music for his video by himself; he was like ‘yeah I just sat down at my piano and started playing some arpeggios.’ The word ‘arpeggios’ was great. I couldn’t help smiling and had to make a great effort not to start wildly clapping and cheering for Jonathan during his presentation because it was going so well.”

A powerful moment for Jonathan was, “being on stage when I was announced to have third place.” He remembered being in front of 10,000 people that had come from every corner of the United States to compete. He noted, “It was really interesting to see so many kids from different places in one place.”

First and second place went to teams of three. Tina commented, “It’s amazing that he placed in the top three when the other two teams had triple the man power.”

California wasn’t all business for the travelers though. Besides getting cheesecake to celebrate Jonathan’s win, they found themselves at Huntington Beach, Hollywood, the Walk of Fame and the Dolby Theater, where the Oscars take place. They enjoyed the west coast for a total of five days. 

Bea, who at the time was president of the chapter, stated her thoughts on the trip, “The River Ridge FBLA chapter is very proud of Jonathan for not only being the first member from the chapter to make it to nationals, but for also placing third in the nation. Our time in California was full of a ton of different opportunities and experiences that we would have never experienced without Jonathan’s hard work and Mrs. Tina Dilley’s dedication to make the chapter the best it could be.”

River Ridge’s FBLA has a long future in front of it. The chapter has only existed at the school for the past four years. Tina took over for Chris Earle, the first adviser and former business teacher, two years ago, when she took over his teaching position. 

“I think it’s important for organizations like this to exist to give students new opportunities,” Jonathan said.

In the past two years, the organization has reached membership numbers of approximately 40 students. Tina’s persistence has led to the organization becoming a popular one at the rural school.

Through the organization, students are introduced to many career-related events. Tina mentioned one experience where a student returned from an event and declared that he knew exactly what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. 

“I think that the FBLA organization is doing a wonderful job of teaching all of its student members—not just the ones interested in pursuing a career business—valuable communication, leadership, and professional skills that they will certainly be able to use throughout their life,” Rebecca, who was once an officer of the chapter, said. 

Jonathan added, “Personally, FBLA has been very impactful, and students should have an open mind toward it.”

Former adviser Chris gave his praise to the new adviser, and stated the accomplishments of the chapter have been “a great experience for the students.” He also noted that Jonathan competed against the best of the best, and he should be proud of such an honor. 

In the fall, Jonathan will be a junior at River Ridge. He plans to continue in FBLA, become an officer and find new projects to participate in. 

He does not plan to follow a 3D animation career path, but hopes to become an architect instead.

“For me, coming away with such an accomplishment is really cool,” Jonathan stated. With passion like his own, a world of possibilities is in his future.

Jonathan, the son of Leo and Sara Breuer, is from Patch Grove. 

To watch his project on YouTube, search “Jon Breuer Go Green.” To learn more about the River Ridge FBLA Chapter, check out their Facebook page “RRHS Future Business Leaders of America.”