Chase Orinski is taking care of business.

Literally.

The rising senior at Liberty HS participated in the Future Business Leaders of America State Leadership Conference April 17-19 in Hershey, where scoring second place in the business plan event advanced him to the FBLA National Leadership Conference slated for June 25-30 in Atlanta, Georgia. Orinski will be the first Liberty student in many years to participate in nationals.

“FBLA is a very important club to me. I get to develop leadership and professionalism as part of the club,” Orinski said. He noted there was much discussion at SLC this year about how FBLA is a community, and Orinski agrees. “The FBLA community is great, and I want to be a part of it as long as possible.”

At states, Orinski was also inducted into the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Business Honor Society - the first Liberty Hurricane to do so since the 2013-14 school year - and received one of five highly coveted Keystone Leadership Awards from Pa. FBLA. He was recognized at states for two “Business Achievement Awards” as well as having contributed 197 hours of community service to Pa. FBLA’s “Big 33” community service project in 2022.

Orinski was one of three Liberty students to make the trip to states. The other two participants were juniors Grace Daja and Isabel Goldstein, who competed as a team in the Public Service Announcement competition while Orinski competed in the Business Plan event. Daja and Goldstein finished eighth in the state in their event, but did not qualify for nationals.

Because of Orinski’s participation in states, he plans to spend his senior year building Liberty’s FBLA next year to put it on a path to becoming bigger and better in the years to come. He is chapter secretary this year and hopes to be chapter president next year. As president, Orinski has his eyes on chapter awards for Liberty, and wants to help the school earn awards such as biggest member increase, most community service hours by chapter and chapter with most fundraising for the PA State Project.

“At SLC I saw a lot of chapters win awards for things I know Liberty could win,” Orinski said. “I want to make Liberty FBLA a big, active chapter so that we compete for those awards next year. I would also like to make it back to SLC and hopefully NLC again.”

“FBLA has taught me that hard work pays off,” Orinski said. “In my first two years in FBLA, I competed in other events but didn’t go to states because I didn’t work hard enough. This year, I was determined to go to states, so I started researching and writing my business plan in June. I worked on my plan for six months and it paid off with a trip to states and now nationals.”

Orinski’s business plan consisted of two parts. Students began by writing a 15 - page business plan for a business that didn’t yet exist or that has been in operation for less than 12 months. The plan had to have financial forecasts, a market competition analysis, an overview of operations, and other pieces expected to be included in a traditional business plan.

The plans were submitted for state judging in December 2022, with the top 15 plans in the state selected for an in-person performance at SLC. This consisted of a seven minute presentation about the plan and a three minute question-and-answer session. The Top 10 were recognized on stage with plaques, with the top four in the state eligible to go to nationals.

Orinski centered his business plan on a fictitious business he named “College Town Sudz,” a string of laundry centers with modern amenities located around all of the Lehigh Valley’s local colleges targeted specifically at college students. His first location would open around Lehigh University, then he planned to open one location a year around the other area colleges.

“The Lehigh Valley has a dense college population with a lot of college students. Everyone needs to clean their clothes and many do this in a laundromat. College Town Sudz directly targets that subset of customers,” Orinski said in his presentation.

Big 33 is PA FBLA’s annual community service goal of 33,000 community service hours for all of its 9,900 plus members. All members submit their community service hours monthly to PA FBLA for tabulation.

Orinski logged 197 hours in 2022 across many different local organizations, including the Bethlehem Public Library, Lehigh Valley International Airport’s Junior Navigator Program, and Greater Lehigh Valley Athletics’ basketball program. Last year, Orinski finished third in the state in the Big 33 contest with 247 hours. This year he did not finish in the Top 10, but received a certificate and commendation letter for his 197 hours in 2022.

Orinski said there is a lot of opportunity to get involved in FBLA for every member, such as earning business achievement awards by completing online classes, community service and the Big 33 competition, and competing in tons of different events. “It has a lot to offer everyone.”

As Orinski strives to hit it out of the park with FBLA, he has a game plan focusing his future career on sports management, and his part-time job with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs is a home run in helping prepare for that.

Orinski wants to study sports management at the University of Georgia or Ohio State University after graduation. He has set his cap to one day work as a general manager in professional baseball.

He is in his third season of working as a part-time Game Day Production Staff with the IronPigs in the press box on game days. His duties include the line score - which is the scoreboard in the stadium - and in-stadium replay.

“I love working for the Pigs. It reinforces that I want to have a career in the business side of professional sports,” Orinski said. “FBLA has taught me professionalism, leadership, teamwork and other skills which I bring to my job with the Pigs.”

FBLA is a family affair in the Orinski household. Orinski’s father, Dave Orinski, was in FBLA in high school and still volunteers as a judge for the state of Arizona. “Chase continuing with FBLA makes me very proud. FBLA means quite a lot to him so he works very hard at doing well,” Dave Orinski said.

Dave Orinski qualified for nationals in an event in 1997 but didn’t attend. “Chase attending is a wonderful achievement. I was president of my chapter in 1997, so Chase wanting to become president of his chapter is a great passing of the baton.”

“I am a competitive person, so part of me wanted to advance to nationals because my dad did also,” Orinski said. “Now, I get to go to nationals. He was also president of his chapter, which I am hoping to be next year. It is really nice to have that guidance and support from him through each event I participate in with FBLA.”

Orinski’s hobbies include learning how to fly. He has been taking flying lessons for two years and actually has solo’d an airplane before he could solo a car. He hopes to get his private pilot’s license as soon as he turns 17 when he is eligible to get it.

“Flying is my passion and it is something that I love to do as a break from school and other things,” Orinski said. “I don’t plan to do it as a career, but I want to keep flying as a hobby through college.”

Orinski is on the varsity golf team at Liberty, and also takes classes at Northampton Community College. He is a member of Liberty’s National Honor Society, Science Olympiad and DECA clubs. DECA prepares emerging leaders in entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, and hospitality and management for careers around the globe. High school chapters get to participate in local, regional, and national competitions through their club chapter. Orinski was recently named Bethlehem Area School District Student of the Week because of his accomplishments.

Orinski is joined at Liberty by his two stepsisters, Abby and Jordan Thompson, both juniors.