Wayne Hills FBLA Starts Up For the 2020-2021 School Year
December 3, 2020
Calling all future businessmen and businesswomen!
The Wayne Hills chapter of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) is starting up for this year, having held its first general membership meeting on Monday, November 30th.
FBLA, the largest career student business organization in the world, inspires students to pursue business and prepares them for their careers through leadership development opportunities and academic competitions. With just about 40 members this year, the Wayne Hills chapter is one of the largest student clubs at Hills.
Returning as the club’s advisor this year, Wayne Hills teacher Ms. Noll is happy to be back working with this year’s FBLA officers. “[Our goals for FBLA this year] are to compete at the regional, state and national level, community service, build friendships, learn leadership and business skills. [As the advisor, I am looking forward to] state competitions, community service projects and how being hybrid/virtual plays out for this club.”
While many of FBLA’s events are usually in person, the organization had to adjust to a virtual platform, which can make it difficult to plan fun and effective events. “[The virtual setting is] not the same, it is a struggle,” said Ms. Noll. “I miss my students/members in person. We are having our meetings on google meet, and are working on virtual events for the year. We will see how it goes! I’m excited to see the end result.”
Having participated in FBLA since her freshman year, senior Skyler Sieradzky is leading the club this year as President. When looking back on her previous years with the club, Sieradzky said that her favorite part of FBLA has been “meeting people from all over the world and learning how FBLA has impacted their life, and how they have been able to overcome obstacles… [For this year,] everything we do is going to be virtual… safety is the most important thing to us! Although it might be challenging, we are planning some super fun virtual activities for our members!”
FBLA’s first upcoming virtual events are the New York Jets Virtual Sports Business Sessions, which invites local schools to attend individual sessions to hear from Jets business staff in various departments. There are two upcoming sessions on December 9 and December 16 from 10 to 11 am, focusing on Fan Commerce and Social Media respectively.
As Co-Membership Vice President, Gabrielle Goldman is excited for the upcoming Jets Virtual Sports Business Sessions and other future FBLA events. “I’m looking forward to working alongside the rest of the officer team to increase club membership and encourage members to get involved in activities such as the State Competition, Jet’s Virtual Business Day, and the virtual business challenges.”
The Wayne Hills Chapter of FBLA has a number of other officers, including Secretary Elizabeth Shubaderov and Co-Vice President Deren Ergen.
“So far my favorite part of FBLA has been meeting with the members who joined this year. It’s so nice seeing underclassmen getting involved, especially with how hard it is with everything being all virtual. For this year, I am looking forward to seeing all of our members succeed in business competitions like the Virtual Business Challenge, States, and Nationals,” said Shubaderov.
Ergen has also enjoyed being involved with FBLA throughout high school. “My favorite part of FBLA was definitely going to States my sophomore year. Mainly because I was [with] so many friends… [it was also] so professional, which really impressed me,” said Ergen. “I also enjoyed the Krispy Kreme donations we’ve had for the last couple years. That’s one of our big fundraising projects and throughout the years it’s fun to compete with members to see who can sell the most boxes! I’m looking forward to brainstorming and being creative on projects and community service, especially with what’s going on in today’s world. It’s definitely a bump in the road, but I’m looking forward to helping younger students get the same experience as I did as an underclassman.”
With Ms. Noll as the club’s advisor and senior Skyler Sieradzky as President, FBLA has a great leadership team that is looking to engage students during this virtual learning environment and continue to introduce its members to different careers and opportunities in business.
If you are interested in joining the club, email Ms. Noll at [email protected]!
