Beyond the Name: Students Share What FBLA Truly Is

Through teamwork and leadership, FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) gives students the opportunity to learn skills that go beyond the classroom, as leaders describe how it works through their experiences

By: Isabella Sutherland

For the students involved in FBLA, the organization is more than meetings and competitions, it’s through the leadership, teamwork, and skill earned things that prepare them for life beyond high school.

Sehrish Hirani ’27, Co-President of FBLA said, “One of the most important things that I’ve learned is probably that teamwork drives actual completion. Within FBLA, I think about not only what I can do, but what our team can do, and that’s what helps us be so successful…”

Hirani believes that teamwork is a huge part of FBLA because all their activities heavily rely on what each other person agrees upon with their team after collaborating about it.

This club teaches students so many useful skills that could be used in the real world as they continue to learn everyday while the club progresses.

She also said, “So FBLA is known as a CTSO. So CTSO stands for Career Technical Student Organization, and it’s also kind of intertwined within the CTE pathway, which is like career technical education… I’ve learned so much about how to lead, how to be a leader in different situations, but I’ve also learned about how to be tactical and professional, because those are all skills that are so important for everyone to know.”

Von Borowicz ’27, vice president of membership and recruitment also said something similar, “I would say definitely a skill I’ve learned through this club is more like the leadership side, and how to kind of talk to a large group of people, keep people engaged, and and be a good leader and lead through example, not just my words.”

Along with the leadership skills, FBLA members set goals for themselves and their teams while learning through the process.

He said, “I would say definitely we want to max out our 175 people we can bring to state, and obviously doing better in our competitions and pitching top 10 at state as a chapter itself, so that would just mean everyone is doing good on their objective tests and their presentations and stuff. So just overall doing better in the competitions because we already do get quite a bit of membership and involvement.”

While competitions are an important part of FBLA, members also have opportunities to develop skills that can benefit them throughout life.

Mayce Gutierrez ’27, vice president of community service said, “I feel like it’s a very prepping organization because you get a lot of public speaking, and there’s so many events that you can do. So, like for me, I did organizational leadership, and that really helped me work with others and learn how the workplace work like actually runs. But like speaking events, there’s job interview events. So it’s super. It doesn’t just prep you for after high school for college and whatnot, but it preps you for a lot of areas of life.”

With all the different events FBLA offers, students can find their own way to develop their skills while working to their own goals.

Janna Asunto ’27, said, “Well, for this school year, we definitely want to uphold our tradition of excellence, where we win first place in Central Section Sweepstakes… But I definitely want to have everyone like compete to their best potential, take advantage of like our leadership development conferences, and all the opportunities that we have to provide for a chapter on campus…”

While competition remains an important part of FBLA, the organization also gives students a variety of opportunities to explore with their interests and connect with others.

Alexis Seals ’27 FBLA president said, “FBLA is a big business organization. It helps you learn stuff like real world business skills. There’s tons of opportunities for you if you’re interested in things like agriculture business… It’s just a great way to network and connect with a bunch of students, not only on campus, but this is a national wide organization, and there’s tons of opportunities and tons of ways to connect with everybody.”

Business-related events and networking also help students build connections beyond their own school.

Seals finished off by saying, “Our main mission of FBA is to just get students involved and also be prepared for that business aspect of life. I know that this. Has affected me in a way. I am planning to go. Went to college and major in some sort of business aspect, and so our main mission is really just to get kids to like be involved in that kind of world and know have a set point of like what they want to do and help them figure that out”

Tags: alexis seals, club day, clubs, fbla, future business leaders of america, Isabella Sutherland, redwood high school, redwood journalism, student life, visalia ca