This week’s Club Corner spotlight is on FBLA. Standing for Future Business Leaders of America, it is a national organization with over 230,000 members. Amanda Kaczmarczyk, a senior accounting major and the president of the club, states that the mission of the club is to “bring businesses and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership development programs.”
Natalie Miller, a sophomore marketing major and the vice president of the club, adds to this by also saying that FBLA focuses on “building students’ career and leadership skills for their future professions.”Miller also said that FBLA does “a lot of career preparation at the collegiate level, so we have resume labs, headshot fundraisers, guest speakers, and then we have states and nationals every year as well.”
Kaczmarczyk said that last year’s nationals were in Atlanta, Georgia, and 5 members from Bloomsburg’s chapter attended before explaining that the club has 3 main focuses: service, education, and progress. The service portion of the club involves members doing various community service projects and fundraisers, which this year are in support of March of Dimes and their professional headshot fundraiser, which is coming up on February 28th in the Art and Admin building. “That is our main fundraiser; we also did t-shirts last year and a portion of those proceeds went to March of Dimes as well,” Kaczmarczyk said.
Miller adds, “Bloomsburg FBLA Collegiate was first in the nation for March of Dimes donation fundraising at nationals last year.”
When describing the education part of the club, Kaczmarczyk said, “We compete at states and nationals so that is through competitive academic tests and presentations.” These competitions also include objective testing as well as workshops and leadership-building opportunities at the NLC and SLC, which stand for National Leadership Conference and State Leadership Conference, respectively.
Miller then explained that the third pillar in the foundation of Bloomsburg is progress, which is “opportunities for students to grow professionally so that could be the resume building, guest speakers, networking, that type of thing.”
Speaking about what a typical meeting looks like, Kaczmarczyk said, “Every meeting is a little bit different with different events, whether that’s guest speakers or if we are going out and touring businesses.” She added that one meeting last year was spent touring the Greenly Center downtown.
Even though the club focuses on creating business professionals, any student, in any major, can be involved. There is no requirement to be in the club, and the only thing necessary to stay in it is to pay the dues fee once each year. Miller also explains that the club has an outstanding member program, in which “going to meetings and being more involved in FBLA will get you more points and at the end of the year, you could win a prize and put it on your resume.”
If you would like to join the club or would like more information about it, feel free to contact Amanda Kaczmarczyk at [email protected] or follow the club on Instagram (@bloomufbla).
