What every high school students can learn from participating in FBLA
By Jada Farquharson
Timber Creek’s FBLA or Future Business Leaders of America is an organization on campus that trains and prepares students who are interested in becoming community and business leaders in the global society. Students partake in leadership exercises. They will utilize those leadership skills when participating in community service projects, applying for office positions, and fundraising activities. Taking part in these activities ensures a students’ success in college and a bright future. When applying for any scholarship you have the opportunity to demonstrate how you were in a leadership position, was apart of large business projects involving students, and received awards. Students participate in these organizations through Business Achievement Awards(BAA), Middle Level Achievement Program (MAP), or Career and Membership Achievement Programs. Mastery of a certain topic is also required in this organization. Students will study certain topics such as Cybersecurity. When studying they are able to expand their learning processes and learn about something not available in everyday schooling. They will compete in this category and go on to competitions with other students from different schools competing in the same category. Everyone is eligible for a chance to participate in district, state, and national competitions.
After studying the subjects students partake in Districts. You can choose between a very broad 50 competitive topics. These include finance, management, public speaking, technology, and more. Mrs.Pierce(the leader of FBLA), along with the Florida FBLA encourages all students who are in this club encourages all students to aim for nationals. Their job is to help high school students improve their leadership skills, help them achieve their academic goals, enhance individual skills, and prepare them for their future path. This school year the district competition is taking place in January. It is being held at Full Sail University. This is where students take their test based on the subject they have chosen to study. Winners are announced at the ending ceremony. Following districts is state competitions. During States, which takes place in March of 2020 there is another exam for the chosen subject. If one were to score high enough on the previous test in Districts, they will continue their studies and take another exam at States. Everyone who participates is placed in a hotel for three days where they continue to master their topic and attend “workshops” where they are taught the fundamentals of leadership from different people with varying experiences. Justin Farquharson recalled the event and said, “It was a lot of fun. This year me and my friends are definitely trying to go again, so we have to study.” Students are able to take notes on the tips they learn from each speaker. They participate in team building activities, and build an understanding of what it takes to become leaders.
Finally, if a student were to perform well enough at Districts, they are able to move further, which is Nationals. Last year, with over 4,800 students competing, one of our Timber Creek students was able to place in 2nd. Senior Kyra Smith was eligible for nationals after she placed 2nd in Management Decision Making. For students like Kyra these business competitions give a lot of students a chance to experiment, and find what things interest them. Perfect them and make a future from it. Of course attending all of these competitions is not cheap so Timber Creek’s FBLA comes together to raise funds to be able to go to these competitions. Junior Elly Haadad mentioned, “I knew a few people who were doing the fundraisers for this club last year, and I wanted to do it too.” Every holiday they make cookie grams for these funds. This past year they also held a fundraiser to get more students to participate in these amazing opportunities. They ended up raising almost up to 5,000 dollars.
Along with competitions and learning to raise money students of FBLA learn leadership the most from volunteering in service activities around their community. Looking after the community teaches students to be responsible, professionalism, communication skills, teamwork, etc. Learning these skills and applying them whenever you can can benefit any future business leader, and increase academic potential. Students in this organization often take part in volunteering with younger children. They help clean the community and help them out with school. Problem solving is also a very good skill developed from community service opportunities like these. Overall, participating in FBLA can teach any students some of the many things that they need to learn in life to be successful. If interested make sure to attend the informational meeting held towards the beginning of the year with Mrs. Pierce, fill out the forms, and pay your dues. Learning how to be a leader in a business or in any way can set you up for a successful future. Anyone is bound to take away something that they will use in the future from being in this organization.
Team of Leaders. The participants of the State Competition just finished their day in The Workshop and pose for a picture. The three day business event took place at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Orlando. “ The workshop was pretty cool. I remember taking a lot of notes on how to work as a team,” said junior Justin Farquharson. Photo donated