GRC’s FBLA students got to go on a school trip to Phoenix, Arizona on November 6-8 for the FBLA National Fall Leadership Conference. Conferences like this help build leadership and other helpful skills.
One thing many of the students in FBLA have in common is that they love going to all the different conferences. They get to meet other people with similar interests.
“My favorite thing about being in FBLA is traveling to places and getting to meet so many different people from different states and cultures,” said FBLA junior Bryce Boland. “We attended different workshops where there is a speaker who instructs activities or lessons on how to get useful skills.”
Some workshops not only teach those valuable skills but also give students the chance to give back to the community. This goes to show how leadership goes beyond success and can help make a positive difference in people’s lives.
“Me, Clay, and Cameron were all in the same fundraising workshop where we learned about a new show drive fundraiser,” said FBLA junior Colter Hearn. “People donate shoes, the shoes get taken and distributed to people in need. We take the shoes we collect and the company gives us money based on how many shoes we turned in”
Another impressive project led by FBLA students was their hands-on workshop building a golf course, all the way from coming up with the theme to building props.
“We were split into groups of 10 people and we had to divide up into 4 different categories of leaders, constructors, finance, and social media.” said FBLA junior Cameron Turley. “They documented the whole process on how we built a golf course. First we had about an hour to come up with the name and theme, we did one on trees, ours was ‘Tigers Woods’ so we tried to promote the trees and we built trees around the golf course.”
In one of the workshops, FBLA students collaborated and planned before showing the final product to the judges using communication, creativity, and organization.
“For my workshop, I had to get a team together and create a PSA as well as a story board and a pitch to a panel of judges for how we could make the fashion industry more stable,” said Hearn. “We focused on shoes. We recorded the PSA and wrote out the story board and we had to leave early so i told my group what to present to the judges because i was the lead of that group”
Pitching the ideas to judges lets you practice explaining ideas clearly and confidently. It helps to get students more comfortable with public speaking, and builds leadership abilities and professional skills.
“I did a marketing workshop, where we got put into groups and created a business idea about a common traveling problem and pitched it to the judges,” said Boland. “My group’s problem was how long it takes for people to load luggage on a plane. We decided on adding or extending the entrance.”
On these trips, students sometimes get to go sight-seeing. Places like these help to make learning exciting and engaging.
“We went to the Arizona State Science Center, we took a business tour of their whole science facility,” said Turley. “The main part of the center was the Dorrance dome. It’s a bunch of 8k panel TVs put into a sphere shape and they show education science videos that are very high quality.”
To help make these conferences even better and more rewarding for FBLA students the school sometimes plans out super fun stuff for them to enjoy while on the trip.
“We went to a Phoenix Suns basketball game for free, it was so fun for all of us.” said FBLA junior Clay Rowe. “Someone stood up with a shirt that said six seven when the score hit 6-7 and said ‘I live for this…six seven!’ and everyone cheered.”
