Business is booming in Beaver Area High School with the Future Business Leaders of America club.

After a successful run last year with previous seniors such as Gary Liu, the club started to recruit more future business leaders August 30 in sponsor Mrs. Lori Guandolo’s room where officers junior Edward Quillin, junior Ava Mrkonja, junior Elizabeth Paskey, and senior Cannon Hoback hosted a presentation for interested students.

For those who are not familiar with FBLA, the organization allows students across the nation who want to expand their business knowledge to compete against each other in a number of different ways.

The teacher behind FBLA at our school district—Mrs. Guandolo—explained that “Students complete different business achievements, compete at events where they pick a topic and present in front of judges, and set up numerous volunteer-led community events.”

Every first and third Wednesday of each month the club meets together to either hold a mandatory meeting where the club officers discuss the latest news for the organization or an optional workshop meeting where all members can have the opportunity to work on competition projects.

September 6 was the first mandatory meeting of the year and acted as a welcome to any new inductees with not much other news besides the first fundraiser: selling the popular Anderson’s chocolate bars much like the JROTC and music programs.

September 20 was the first optional meeting where only a handful of officers and members met to discuss future events and how to handle the local chapter—a list of tasks that the club has to complete to ensure their placement at competitions.

Another topic at the optional meeting was the creation of t-shirts to wear during volunteer work. Unlike previous years, the club isn’t allowed to change the actual design of the FBLA logo on any t-shirt, so that’s one problem the club has to overcome.

Some potential volunteer work ideas were thrown around as well such as: helping out at the Humane Society’s “Haunted Trail” or working at the Midland Center or hosting a banquet for new inductees.

The club’s officers are greatly involved with the organization and encourage all to join.

“My favorite part [of FBLA] was Gary Liu, but he left,” said club treasurer Quillian.

“My favorite part [of FBLA] is that I get to give back to my community and I have a lot of friends in the club,” said club president Paskey.

Unfortunately, the chance to join the club has ended by this point, but everyone should consider joining in the future to give back to the community and learn about business!