Future Business Leaders of America converge on campus for district contest
Special to the Gazette
Friday, February 6, 2009
Future Business Leaders of America descended on the ESU campus on Wednesday to participate in the District VII FBLA contest. The event, co-hosted by the ESU Phi Beta Lambda and Pi Omega Pi chapters, and sponsored by the ESU School of Business, gave students from District VII of FBLA opportunities to participate in a variety of competitive events, such as public speaking, impromptu speaking, management decision making, business ethics and client services.
In addition, candidates for District VII Vice President were introduced by their respective schools. This year, D.J. Bronson of Northern Heights was introduced to the District VII FBLA members as he started his campaign for the office.
Ryan Norton, Phi Beta Lambda member, Pi Omega Pi president and student teacher at Olpe, noted that the event gives ESU PBL and POP members the opportunity to network and work with high school students from the area. This is especially important for the ESU students who are business education majors.
“Many of our business education majors at ESU are members of Pi Omega Pi business education honor society and Phi Beta Lambda, the post-secondary equivalent to FBLA,” Norton said. “This event gives them the opportunity to work with high school students and gives them an advantage over their counterparts in business education at KSU and FHSU because they gain first-hand knowledge of how to run an event such as this and how to prepare their future students for competition. Additionally, the PBL members are able to prepare for their state competition in late February by listening to the presentations given by the high school students and seeing what works and what doesn’t work.”
More than 400 high school students from 17 area schools in Lyon, Chase, Morris, Osage, Franklin and Wabaunsee counties were on campus for the contest and more than 30 School of Business faculty members and students helped with the event by acting as coordinators and judges.