Two Fairfax County Public Schools students earned first-place national titles at the 2026 Future Business Leaders of America National Leadership Conference, beating out more than 13,400 competitors from nearly 2,100 schools across 47 states and Canada.
Ishaan Shukla of Chantilly High School won Public Administration and Management. Sahas Reddy of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology took first in Computer Problem Solving. Both competed at the conference held Monday, June 29, through Thursday, July 2, in San Antonio, Texas.
In all, 13 FCPS students from six schools placed as finalists or winners across business, technology and media categories, according to a district announcement published Tuesday. The competition distributed nearly $65,000 in cash prizes across 108 events, drawing more than 16,000 total attendees, including educators and volunteers.
No South Lakes High School students appeared among the named finalists this year, though the Reston school lists FBLA among its official extracurricular programs and sent students to the Virginia state competition in 2025.
Full list of FCPS finishers
First place:
- Ishaan Shukla (Chantilly High School) — Public Administration and Management
- Sahas Reddy (TJHSST) — Computer Problem Solving
Second through seventh place:
- Michael Mafanire (TJHSST) — second place, Journalism
- Josephine Huynh (Falls Church High School) — fourth place, Introduction to Retail and Merchandising
- Taylor Lindenberg and Valeria Morales (Robinson Secondary School) — fifth place, Mobile Application Development
- Dwij Bhensdadia, Ian Caballero, and Javier Caballero (Robinson Secondary) — sixth place, Computer Game and Simulation Programming
- Namay Khandelwal (TJHSST) — sixth place, International Business
- Vishruth Nadikattu (TJHSST) — sixth place, Project Management
- Abigail Bruechert (Robinson Secondary) — seventh place, Technology Support and Services
Eighth through 15th (finalists):
- Arpan Prasai (TJHSST) — ninth place, Network Design
- Sravya Gogineni, Akshayasri Lokam, and Harini Sudhakar (TJHSST) — 10th place, Visual Design
- Eric Kim, Joshua Park, and Himadrin Senthil Kumar (Centreville High School) — finalists, Digital Video Production
- Krish Mathuria (Rocky Run Middle School) — finalist, Exploring Management and Entrepreneurship
Thomas Jefferson led the FCPS contingent with six entries placing in the top 15, followed by Robinson Secondary with three. Rocky Run Middle School's Krish Mathuria was the lone middle-schooler among the district's finishers.
