Southern Lehigh High School students who attended club rush in early September may have noticed the massive crowd of students at the FBLA table. Although the club itself is nothing new to Southern Lehigh, the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club acquired hundreds of signups this year. Senior Zain al-Din Shamasseen, this year’s FBLA president, is ecstatic about taking on his new role and meeting the new members of the popular club.
“It’s very exciting,” senior Shamasseen said. “I’m thrilled about all the interest shown. It should be a great year, kicked off with a great slideshow and fun traditions.”
FBLA accumulated over 200 sign-ups of interested students this year, surpassing club involvement last year.
“It is important that new students join and show participation so we can keep filtering out,” business teacher and FBLA advisor Mr. Michael Anthony said.
Mr. Anthony emphasized the importance of younger underclassmen showing interest in the club, so the leaders of the club can pass down their roles in the years to come. Freshman Drew Pera is one of many new FBLA members.
“A lot of my friends joined the club and it seems interesting,” Pera said. “Many freshmen are lining up to see what the club has in store for them. This is a brand new, fresh experience for the freshmen students, having never been a part of anything like this at the middle school.”
Students are eager to learn business practices and techniques that will make them successful in the future.
“I definitely want to learn how to start a business,” Pera said. “I believe FBLA will help me achieve that.”
With new students come new ideas and activities to grow the club. FBLA offers many different opportunities for its members. For one, students are tested and can compete in a variety of business-related subjects.
“A big part of FBLA is the competitions. You can pick an event, compete at the regional level, state level, and eventually the national level,” Mr. Anthony said.
These competitions are a huge part of FBLA. Tons of students participate yearly and go on to win big prizes. The competitions are designed to test students on various business topics. The test can be taken online or in-person, assessing club members on concentrations such as accounting, marketing, and finance. Other competitions include the Ethics Bowl where students are asked a business-related question and are tasked to generate real-life business problem solutions, balancing the interest of business and ethics.
These events, although interesting, only occur a few times a year, so the club has been taking initiative to level up their day-to-day agenda. Shamasseen and Mr. Anthony have been working together, focusing on new plans, introducing intuitive games and activities.
“One big idea is that we are going to do a stock market game this year,” Mr. Anthony said.
In this one-of-a-kind stock market game, club members get to experience the life of an investor, putting “money” into the stock market, and getting a visualization of what actually happens to that money. This game will help students understand how the real stock market works and what they can prepare for in future trades.
The Southern Lehigh FBLA is bigger and better than years’ past and club leaders look forward to introducing business and ethics to the new members.