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!
The 2023-2024 FBLA President is Logan Decker (12).
Decker's responsibilities are as follows:
- To create the meeting agendas
- To ensure the chapter meets FBLA criteria
- To work closely with the club advisers and fellow officers to maintain club activities
The 2023-2024 FBLA Senior Vice Presidents are Isaiah Louis-Jacques (12) and Madison Cottle (12).
Louis-Jacques and Cottle work together to complete the following tasks:
- promote the Business Achievement Awards
- to coordinate all FBLA fundraisers, conferences, and events
- to oversee the Chairperson of Community Service
The 2023-2024 FBLA Junior Vice President is Jessica Haggerty (11).
Haggerty fulfills the following tasks as Junior Vice President:
- To assist members with the Business Achievement Awards
- To oversee the Chairperson of Business Partnerships
- To help coordinate FBLA chapter events, conferences, and meetings
The 2023-2024 FBLA Treasurer is Hayden Rutt (12).
Rutt is responsible for completing the following tasks:
- To create a monthly budget
- To maintain Stroudsburg FBLA's accounting records
- To take charge of planning fundraising activities, collecting and counting money on fundraiser submission days
- To work closely with the Chairperson of Business Partnerships to collect money from business partners and issue receipts
The 2023-2024 FBLA Secretary is Alisabeth Guepet (11).
Guepet completes the following tasks as Secretary:
- To keep meeting minutes for all meetings
- To enter meeting attendance
- To share the meeting notes with the club advisers
The 2023-2024 FBLA Reporter is Alexis Binikos (11).
Binikos fulfills the following tasks as the Reporter:
- Take charge of photos for chapter events
- To create content to post on Stroudsburg FBLA's social media pages
- To create content for local news accounts
- Take charge of writing and submitting announcements
The 2023-2024 FBLA Chairperson of Community Service is Gabriella Parker (11).
Parker's responsibilities are as follows:
- To maintain records of the hours of community service that each FBLA member submits
- To complete submissions to Big 33
- To plan and oversee FBLA community service events
- To promote and recruit members to participate in volunteer opportunities
The 2023-2024 FBLA Chairperson of Business Partnership is Jaden Harper (11).
Harper fulfills the following tasks:
- To take charge of recruiting and maintaining business partners for the chapter
- To deliver materials to the chapter's partners
- To recruit members to participate in volunteering events
The 2023-2024 FBLA Chairperson of Career Development/Competitive Events is William Awuah (11).
Awuah takes on the following responsibilities:
- To work to create study material and resources for members to use to prepare for their competitive events
- To set up schedules for role-play practices, monthly testing workshops, and practice sessions
- To encourage members to participate in the Business Achievement Award and National Business Honors Society
The 2023-2024 FBLA Freshman Representative is Kendall Runkel (9).
Runkel's responsibilities as Freshman Representative are:
- To work closely with her fellow officers to learn the roles and responsibilities of positions of interest
- To help lead fellow members in the chapter
- To encourage fellow members to become further involved with Stroudsbug FBLA
Meet the Region 21 Future Business Leaders of America officer team.
President- Isaiah Louis-Jacques (Stroudsburg, 12)
Louis-Jacques is responsible for conducting meetings accordingly, keeping members and discussions on track, coordinating meeting events and activities, and assisting in planning meeting programs with the region's advisers.
Vice President- Lilian Erhardt (Pleasant Valley, 11)
Erhardt assists the president in the discharge of duties, is prepared to assume the duties of president should the need arise, oversees all committee work, and manages assignments.
Secretary- Jessica Haggerty (Stroudsburg, 11)
Haggerty prepares and records the meeting minutes, provides the president with a written agenda for the meeting, counts and records votes when taken, prepares chapter reports, attends official correspondences, sends out meeting notices, and works closely with the treasurer to keep an accurate member roll and issue membership cards.
Treasurer- Madison Cottle (Stroudsburg, 12)
Cottle takes charge of working closely with the region advisers in depositing funds, preparing documents for disbursement of funds, keeping financial records, overseeing appropriate fundraising activities, counting money, and preparing deposit slips of money collected from fundraisers.
