David Berdik, an upcoming senior at Shaler Area High School, placed first in the Desktop Application Programming category at the Future Business Leaders of America’s National Leadership Conference, held in Chicago in July.

Berdik qualified for nationals after placing 2^nd in the State Leadership Conference, in Hershey, for the desktop application he created and programmed. The interface and database he created allows employees of a fictional animal shelter to input information about incoming animals and print reports based on the information.

At the National Conference, Berdik competed against 34 students from 12 states in his category. Between the state competition in May and the national competition held June 29 to July2, Berdik made some modifications to improve the user interface and make the program look better. He also changed the way reports are viewed to make them easier to read. Then he tested the program on a number of different computers and operating systems so he was confident the program would work as he wrote it on any computer.

He credits the judges’ criticism of his program at the state competition as the impetus for the changes he made and to his success at nationals.

“Constructive criticism can make you better,” he said. “Instead of ignoring it, I tried to implement the suggestions.”

Berdik said he was very excited to represent Shaler Area at the Natinoal Conference and bring home a first place award. He said he already is looking forward to competing in the FBLA competitions in the 2015-2016 school year.