FBLA Offers Opportunities for FAHS Students

Why do students join FBLA?

It is a great club to spend your time on! Getting involved with this organization helps to improve communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. It looks great on college applications and is an excellent way to get a scholarship to your dream college.

“I joined because I want to learn more business stuff because I know business is in almost every job today,” freshman Mark Weston said.

FBLA is the largest student business organization in the world. According to fbla-pbl.org, a quarter of a million business people have chosen to be members of the premier business education association, preparing students for careers in business.

“In high school, I was in the business program, and FBLA was the perfect organization for me. I was the vice president and president throughout my time in high school. It was a fun organization, and I had a lot of good memories and learned great skills. In college, I also joined PBL (Phi Beta Lambda), the college version of FBLA, in which we competed and did community service work. Throughout my time, I learned even more about being a great leader,” FBLA Advisor Mrs. Kelly Ackerman said.

FBLA offers s a great opportunity to meet new people from all over the state and country. In FBLA, participants have three competition levels: Regionals, States, and Nationals. Organizers also hold state-wide and national conferences.

“I joined because I wanted to learn new things from a business aspect to explore different career options. I am looking forward to the competitions the most,” junior Mandy Meck said.

These trips have great advisers and business leaders who are willing to teach students skills that will help them later on down the road. They will be able to tour businesses, eat good food, and go on fun field trips to reward them for their hard work.

“Well it looked like a lot of fun, and I wanted to start doing some community service anyway, and this was a great opportunity to do that,” sophomore Cassie Harwood said.

In the past years, Fleetwood’s FBLA chapter has achieved great honors. In 2013-2014, Fleetwood was first in the state for community service hours. In 2006, Fleetwood even won nationals in service hours!

“And when I arrived at Fleetwood, the chapter had been inactive for many years. I felt that it would be a great opportunity for students to learn business skills if we could reactivate. The administration was extremely supportive, and the chapter was recreated in fall of 1998 and has been going strong ever since,” Ackerman said.