Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA): What Is It and What Do They Do?
Does the thrill of meeting people, giving presentations, and uniting people toward one common goal sound like you? Well, you aren’t alone. There are thousands of students like you dreaming of making it big in their upcoming business venture. Who knows, one of them could be your future business partner!
In this blog post, we will discuss one of the best business organizations for high school students: Future Business Leaders of America. We will explain what Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) is, as well as what the organization does.
Future Business Leaders of America: What is it?
Future Business Leaders of America, also known as FBLA, is the largest career and technical student organization in the world. Its mission is to prepare students to excel by starting their own business or business related field.
If one day you see Spacex launch their rocket and exclaim “I’m determined to be the next Elon Musk!" If on your way there you need some help this club is perfect for you. It harnesses your natural talent and burning desire to excel in a business field.
Future Business Leaders of America was founded in 1937 by Columbia University student Hamden L. Forker. With a name like that, you can tell it’s been a while!
There are three major elements to the Future Business Leaders of America organization. These are essentially when combined with the engine to provide resources for students to fuel their creativity.
The first part is a national board of directors that acknowledges students’ visions and input to create an effective and efficient plan to accomplish them. The second crucial component of the Future Business Leaders of America organization is volunteer leadership task forces and committees. They advise the board of directors and manage partnerships and sponsorships that closely relate to their mission.
The final component is the national officers. No, we’re not talking about the military here. However, national officers play a significant role by serving in various student-run positions such as President, Vice President, etc. They are at the forefront of representing students and are extremely committed to doing so.
The future business leaders of Americans come from a variety of host regions around all areas of the world, including China, Tanzania, and Haiti!
Future Business Leaders of America: Opportunities and Awards to achieve your career goals
FBLA provides fantastic opportunities to excel in any business related career. If you dream it, the future business leaders of America organization can most definitely help you achieve it!
The organization provides you with tools to enhance your leadership experience, business knowledge and more. Not only do they do that, but they also give you sweet awards if you excel in a particular area. But that’s not all. FBLA also offers you the chance to compete with other students from across the country and the world in various events and categories.
You can showcase your skills and talents, learn from feedback and judges, and have fun along the way. You can also earn scholarships, recognition, and prizes for your outstanding performance. FBLA is more than just an organization. It’s a community of passionate and driven individuals who share a common vision and goal.
There are four major awards called the Business Achievement Awards. The first award gets you comfortable with the program and introduces you to business foundations. As each level progresses you finally make it to the last level. Think of this as the final boss.
This final level four award is called the Capstone Award. Participants are tasked with designing, completing, and executing a project that solves a real world problem.
Here comes the cool part: When they submit their project it goes under competitive review at the National Leadership Conference. Now how cool is that?
On top of the awards they offer competitive events that range from topics from Accounting to Social Media strategies. The possibilities are endless!
“But, but I don’t know what to say”, calm down. The Future Business Leaders of America club handles that too.
They provide custom and tailored information that serves as preparation resources to help you crush your competition. They're feeding you information with a silver spoon. All you have to do is show up and talk!
Now for the big behemoth, the final boss, the National Leadership Conference. This is where people from all over the world come together. People from Tanzania to the United States join together under one common goal, to win!
The participants are tasked with solving a real world problem with a solution, and the most successful team wins. But winning is not the only reward. The National Leadership Conference is also a great opportunity to network with other ambitious and talented students, to learn from inspiring speakers and workshops, and to explore new places and cultures.
You will gain valuable skills and experiences that will help you in your future career and life. With all these opportunities and awards provided by the Future Business Leaders of America organization, how could you not join?
Future Business Leaders of America: Bring it to your school!
This sounds wonderful, but my school doesn’t have the Future Business Leaders of America club at our school. You, my friend, are in luck.
FBLA allows you to start your own chapter or connect with your local chapter. They break it down into a simple five-step process.
Find an adviser
Your chapter is required to have this, as it is responsible for all the backend that you most likely do not want to do on your own.
Recruit five chapter members and create an Executive Board.
You want to find loyal and dependable members in your Future Business Leaders of America chapter. You should be inclusive and allow anyone who shares an interest to join your chapter.
The executive board is a governing body that allows your chapter to be active and collect funds for it to thrive.
Create Bylaws
There are certain rules your chapter should follow when organizing its events and members' behavior. Think of this as the constitution of your Future Business Leaders of America chapter
Create a work program
This is the action plan of your chapter that should state your definite goal so you know action to be taken to achieve said goal.
Set Officer and General Meeting Dates/ Agenda
Layout dates and locations at the beginning of the year so your process flows smoothly when it is time to execute those planned events
Now you know step by step what to do to bring the Future Business Leaders of America chapter to your school, have some fun with it and get your friends together to take action for your future.
You will need to pay dues at certain intervals to support the mission of the Future Business Leaders of America organization.
I urge you to take charge and spearhead the creation of the local chapter at your school. There could be many students at your school waiting for this opportunity.
You could give them the tools they need to achieve their goals in a business career. Maybe even help them start their own.
Future Business Leaders of America: What’s your plan?
What will you do to make a lasting change in your community? What will you do to allow students to have an outlet for creative business pursuits? What will you do to fund people’s dreams?
I’m about to tell you, start a Future Business Leaders of America chapter. Create an inclusive environment for everyone and allow them to speak and share their ideas.
This student-led organization is an extremely valuable resource that I hope you use. To fuel your passions.
Cheers to your future pursuits.
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
