In the beginning of the school year at Armuchee, students have been given the ability to join the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), allowing students to gain new foundational skills to help them become successful in their future career. FBLA has been able to help students develop key characteristics; such as leadership, to aid in long term business success. Leadership can help you in many aspects. Coach Dunagan, one of the advisers of FBLA, said,”FBLA helps students build leadership skills, which help you get a good job and career in the future.” Leadership skills are one of many key characteristics to develop if one wants to become very successful in their career.
FBLA allows students to participate and exercise important soft skills, such as public speaking, teamwork, problem solving, and time management. This soft skill can be a foundation to developing into a strong leader. Leadership skills will help students to become more successful, including the ability to be confident, lead people with a common goal, communication skills, have emotional control, responsibility, critical thinking and to be respectful. These are key skills that employers seek in nearly every career field. Many students gain these skills, and the outcome can be very rewarding. Coach Dunagan said, “Manu Singh is going to be very successful because he has gained many great characteristics with FBLA.”
Some of the foundations of leadership are responsibility and accountability. FBLA, at Armuchee High School, will provide the student with the opportunity to develop by participation in real life roles. For example, officers, president of school clubs, and so on. Manu Singh, president of the club, said, “ FBLA teaches responsibility in different ways. For example, I am the president of the club, so there are many responsibilities I am accountable for. But there are many other ways, like being an officer.” Responsibilities are a very important part of leadership.
Communication is another important part to making a good leader. As the saying goes, communication is key. Communication skills that are practiced a lot in FBLA, because it involves many opportunities for development. Such events as charities and field trips would not be able to take place if the planning and communication of the events were not communicated well. Communication also pushes people out of their comfort zone. Manu said, “Getting out of my comfort zone has helped me get to where I am now.” Leading others help students learn how to clearly convey ideas and listen to others, which will strengthen both written and verbal communication skills.
The foundations of what FBLA offers students everyday allows them to practice such skills in real life events. Coach Dunagan said, “One of the ways FBLA teaches leadership is when we go to conferences, you will split into groups for what you are interested in, and in those groups you will learn leadership for that topic.” By exposing students to real life events, it allows them the opportunity to network, which gives them access to new people and mentors. This will help their academic and career goals. These events allow students to team up and collaborate together, with common goals. Learning to collaborate and respect each other’s perspective is a valuable skill in a leadership role.
The Future Business Leaders of America, a national organization focused on student preparation for careers in business and leadership, was first started 68 years ago at a High School in Tennessee, and was established at Armuchee over 30 years ago. Coach Dunagan said, “FBLA was at Armuchee when I was here, in the 90s, so a little over 30 years ago.” In these 30+ years, the program has focused on developing students with the life skills needed to be successful in their career. By putting focus on student development at young ages, provides students with a stronger foundation that is needed when they start their career. Leadership helps students become more aware of themselves, and build strength to handle many challenges. This in turn, will help them grow personally and in their future career.
