On Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 Stroudsburg’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) officer team attended the annual Regional Leadership Workshop at East Stroudsburg University’s Innovation Center.
The workshop was a meeting between the FBLA chapters for Region 21. The schools that make up this region include Stroudsburg, Pocono Mountain West, Pocono Mountain East, Weatherly, Pleasant Valley, Lehighton, and Jim Thorpe.
The workshop was called to order by Region 21’s President, Isaiah Louis-Jacques, 12. Standing beside him was the Region Vice President, Lillian Erhardt, 11, from Pleasant Valley, Region Secretary, Jessica Haggerty, 11, and Region Treasurer, Maddison Cottle, 12.
The students listened to the interactive presentation, “Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur” by Chris Paradysz. The presentation touched on team building, problem-solving skills, creativity, learning through failures, and the entrepreneurial mindset.
“A takeaway I learned from the workshop was that even if you fail over and over again, you still can come out with the greatest outcome,” said Cottle. “The guest speaker’s example, Michael Jordan missed over 9,000 shots, lost almost 300 games, and 26 times, he was trusted to shoot the winning shot and missed.” Despite these failures, Michael Jorden is known by some as the greatest basketball player of all time.
After listening to Paradysz’s lessons, the schools participated in the “Made in the Pococnos” competition, which is an entrepreneurial business competition. Each school must develop an entrepreneurial business that would benefit the Poconos or the United States economy. Each group is provided with two poster boards, pencils, a pack of Sharpies, and an hour to gather information and create an eye-catching design for their poster boards. After, two students must present the business to the judges.
“Our school came up with a solid-state battery that didn’t have the common negative effects of a normal battery, which could be applied to large corporations, hikers, and eventually, the general public,” said Louis-Jacques.
As the workshop approached its close, the seniors of the Stroudsburg chapter began to process the emotions they felt as they began their last year with FBLA.
“I was really joyful that I was able to attend this workshop before I left for college,” said Cottle. “I got a lot of knowledge coming out from the workshop that I can apply later in the future.”
To end the Regional Workshop, the winner of the entrepreneurial business competition was presented with the trophy. This year, Leighton Area High School won for their business idea called Backseat Driver.
If you are interested in joining FBLA, contact Jodie Haggerty ([email protected]) today!