12th ANNUAL BUSINESS SKILLS DAY
Overview of the Program
During the fall semester, PBL spends much of its energy preparing for the ASU Business Skills Day. This year our 25 members successfully put on our 12th annual ASU Business Skills Day. The conference is a competition for high school students in FBLA – Future Business Leaders of America - from around the state of Arizona. Our conference consisted of over 700 students from 45 different Middle and High schools. FBLA chapters traveled from as far away as Kingman and Nogales, while others came from schools as close as McClintock High and Mountain View.
Contribution to the University and/or Community
ASU Phi Beta Lambda recognizes the role and importance of education in helping these students reach their full potential. Business Skills Day participants deserve to be recognized for the tremendous initiative they demonstrate by taking an active role in their own education. To do this we honor the top 5 winners in each category with trophies during the closing ceremony of the conference. This allows each school, or student, to take home the honor and glory associated with the hard work needed to succeed at our conference. We are contributing to success of these future business leaders that will keep American business strong through out the new Millennium.
In addition, this event provides Arizona State University and specifically, the College of Business, with valuable marketing and publicity to future attendees. This conference gives serious, academically focused students the opportunity to experience the ASU campus in a new, and exciting way. The students benefit because they experience a challenging conference; ASU benefits from the exposure that is given to over 700 highly motivated students from across the state. Throughout the day we provide seminars such as career workshops hosted by ASU, and campus tours.
Contribution to the development of our members
PBL is a national organization, so there are opportunities to serve as an officer on the local, state, regional, and national levels. On the local level, we focus on Business Skills Day to increase our member’s involvement. This conference provides our members with business experience and leadership development. Putting on a conference is much like running a small business. Our members do everything from public relations, financing, test writing, judging, scheduling, donations, registration, logistics, ordering, catering, etc. In order to make sure that our conference runs smoothly we have a Vice President of Business Skills Day who’s sole responsibility is to make sure we finish everything on time. Each year a new member takes over this challenging role, thus, giving a variety of PBL students the opportunity to coordinate on an entire conference.
Relation to the purpose of the organization
Our purpose, as stated in our bylaws is,
"to further the goals of PBL at Arizona State University. The chapter shall provide opportunities for college students to develop vocational competencies for business and office occupations in the area of business. PBL is an instructional program and in addition promotes a sense of civic and personal responsibility. PBL at Arizona State University shall strive to bring quality programs to the ASU College of Business and maintain a respectable role by assisting the Business College Council in its promotion of the College of Business."
We have conquered all of these objective in one event: we gave our members the opportunity to participate and coordinate a statewide event; we encouraged students in FBLA to join PBL and help run a conference for other high school students; we brought an educationally challenging program to the ASU campus; we promoted ASU and the College of Business.
Phi Beta Lambda is the college division for the FBLA-PBL National Foundation. The ASU chapter of Phi Beta Lambda is dedicated to providing its members with leadership experience and resourceful learning. We consistently deal with top professors from ASU and other colleges, as well as current business leaders to achieve our club objectives.
Overall quality of responses
This program was successful because of the continuous support from various local/state FBLA and PBL advisors. In order to continue to offer this conference we need the financial and emotional support of these individuals. Each successful year provides the following year with a good base and a solid reputation for being one of the best conferences for high school students in the state of Arizona.
Our conference has consistently increased enrollment: in 1989, 150 students participated; in 1994, 525 students came to the conference; this year, we had over 700 middle school and high school students at our event! This shows that advisors and students appreciate and are interested in our program. We hope to have even more students attend our 13th annual program.
Some students that participate at Business Skills Day continue their education at Arizona State University. Many of our club members are former FBLA members, and more specifically, ASU Business Skills Day participants. These students have stated that they joined PBL so that they could help other high school students experience the same opportunities they were given when they attended ASU PBL’s Business Skills Day.