The word business may not mean much to high school students, but out in the real world this is what keeps the world moving and companies like Apple and Google thriving. FBLA, Future Business Leaders of America, is a club that introduces students to the business world, and helps you learn, understand, and adapt to its methods.
FBLA visited Pleasant Valley Baptist Church on January 30 for district competitions. At the competition, all members compete individually or in groups in various performance competitions against other schools that range from public speaking, to business mathematics, or even creating solutions for business problems. Members took district business tests based around business topics online and received awards for their performance while students that performance, These competitions could propel students on to the state competition.
“They also vote on officers for FBLA and they also get awards and find out who won the online contest, the online test that they do at school [is] prior to districts,” club sponsor Sara Havermann said.
Several members have made it to state in years prior and hoped to make it to state again.
“Sophomore year, I placed in state and it’s been about the same every year,” senior Lucas Simpson said. “It’s always at Pleasant Valley, [and] it’s always pretty smooth how they run [it]. It’s really like a leadership conference, so I’d like just like to make it to state, [or] qualify at least.”
Preparation was key for district competition, however the type of competition also plays a big role in it. Public speaking and problem solution competitions require business and speaking skills that can be gathered from FBLA and business classes, while events like online testing just need some common sense as well as some knowledge in business.
“We basically just read online the requirements for the event that you do, so normally in impromptu speaking I would brush up on rules to make sure I knew exactly what it was I was supposed to be doing,” senior Cole Kelley said. “And then in like business ethics and business presentation you really have to make sure what your topic is and what you can and can’t do.”
With any club or sport the goal is for the group to succeed.
“I always hope that they (win), I would like for everyone to qualify for state in something and I would like to take the whole team [to districts],” club sponsor Sara Havermann said. “I would really like to see my whole marketing team, my sports management team, to go to nationals, that would be awesome.”
While FBLA is mainly focused on business, it also teaches students practical life skills. Each type of competition, whether it be mathematics, problem solving, or speaking, requires students to practice different skills that can apply to business as well as other things in life.
“I think for FBLA the skills that you learn can be transferred other places as well,” senior Rachel Young said. “I use [Excel spreadsheets] for Science class, I use them because I actually have a giant one figuring out college finances. You also learn really valuable leaderships skills if you decide to staff the club.”
FBLA even hosts concessions for different sports and tournaments at LHS, in sort of a lemonade-stand type of fashion.
“FBLA is more helping you to be able to work in really simple conditions like in concession stands for tournaments and working registers, freshman Rae Dennis. “It’s stuff not a lot of places give you a chance to do.”
Kelley aggrees, “I feel that everyone should join any kind of speaking club whether it be debate or FBLA just because in life you’re going to have to talk to people, you’re going to have to talk to your bosses, you’re going to have to talk to a board of educators for college scholarships,” Kelley said. “So I feel like being able to talk to people is the number one point of business, and just the number one point of life in general.”