President: Anthony Parascondola Secretary: Lindsey Casella Northern Region Vice President: KyungSun Lee North-Central Vice President: David Li Central Region Vice President: Michael Harrington Southern Region Vice President: Melanee Santos Membership Vice President: Vishva Mehta Community Service Vice President: Chandler Bailey Historian: Laura Sorice Parlimentarian: Evan Murphy Webmaster: Kulpreet Chilana
Welcome New Jersey Future Business Leaders of America! My name is Anthony Parascondola and I am proud to serve as your 2010-2011 NJ FBLA State President. In these past few months, NJ FBLA has proved to be “Simply the Best,” especially at the 2010 National Leadership Conference. At the end of the membership year, NJFBLA ranked 11th in the nation. Not only did we stand out for being a large state chapter, but we were recognized for placing in competitive events, raising funds for the March of Dimes, and promoting recruitment. This year, I am confident that our growing membership will achieve great success as we begin Creating a Legacy! When your State Officer Team arrived at Officer Training in August, we each had goals for our Program of Work that would enhance communication throughout the state, increase local chapter involvement, and many other objectives. To enhance communication, the NJ FBLA State Officer Team created a detailed layout of strengthening the exchange of communication with local members and advisers. Any recent updates from the State or National level will be emailed to all of our local advisers, blogged through our revamped website, as well as posted on the NJ FBLA Facebook page. Furthermore, we want to focus on improving local chapter involvement. New Jersey Future Business Leaders of America is adopting a National Program called the “Passport of Progress.” It focuses on FBLA activities that fall under four categories: Service, Education, Teamwork, and Progress. Each activity has a certain amount of points, depending on its difficulty. Local chapters with the most points will receive preferred seating at the 2011 SLC. These points also determine where New Jersey FBLA sits at the 2011 NLC in Orlando, FL. To participate in this program, local advisers need to start an online account on the National website. Emails will be sent to advisers on how to start up an account and directions will be featured in a blog on the NJ FBLA website. The NJ FBLA Program of Work is posted on the website under the Resources tab. Success is a journey, and the NJ FBLA State Officer Team plans on working with all of our local members and advisers throughout the year. We know that everyone’s dedication to the #1 business organization in the country allows us to work toward Creating a Legacy. If there are any questions throughout the year, always feel free to contact any of the officers. Enjoy the 2010-2011 FBLA year and we look forward to hearing from all of you! Best Regards, Anthony Parascondola NJ FBLA State President
By Lindsey Casella Secretary With a new year comes a new set of responsibilities, tasks, and goals to accomplish. As we head back to school, we return to books, classes, and, of course, FBLA. Now is the time to start planning kickoff meetings and events. From our two new state committees to the Passport of Progress, this will be your best experience yet. Being part of the number one student business organization gives us access to not only believe but to achieve great things in our competitive events and
through the Business Achievement Awards (BAA). As a member, you have the chance to make a dif-
ference. FBLA will help you embrace the leadership within and prepare for the real world. Whether it be
enhancing your leadership skills by running or holding an officer position, attending a state or national conference, or building
a Better Tomorrow” by getting involved within our community. There are so many different aspects of service, from local projects to our partnership with the March of Dimes and our ties with the Ronald McDonald House. Get your school involved and be a part of the community service project by contributing your community service hours. Together we, NJ FBLA, will “Break Barriers”. You tuned into success upon your knowledge in 2009-2010, now its time through workshops, the to begin “Creating a Legpossibilities are endless! acy” in 2010-2011. Get Together, we can “Build ready for a great year!
By Chandler Bailey Community Service VP FBLA has had the privilege of working with the March of Dimes for many years, dedicating resources to raising awareness about premature babies. I am happy to say that this year we are going to try to raise $50,000 before the State Leadership Conference in March. All your local chapter needs to do is fill out a form on the NJ FBLA website and send it in. Your donations will help fill up the progress bar on the Community Service page of the website. Furthermore, during my campaign I talked about helping out your community and how there are other ways of giving back other than donating money. This year I have come up with a completely new program. Each month FBLA members can do community service, and at the end of the month you send me a form about what you have done. The sheet and requirements are posted on the website. At the end of each month I will combine all the hours, and they will be posted on a progress bar on the Community Service page of the NJ FBLA website. Our goal is 1000 hours by the end of the school year! Be sure to check out my blog for further community service updates throughout the year, including some new ways to go green.
THE FIVE FACES The Five Faces show five different professions that directly correspond to FBLA and specific competitions. Check out your future career for tips on what you should compete in and what skills FBLA teaches that can help you prepare for your future!
A MESSAGE FOR YOUR REGION Fellow members of the North Central Region, Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your North Central Region VP! As we begin another exciting year, I have goals I aim to see accomplished. A lack of active communication tends to a prevalent concern in large organizations like ours. I want to make myself as accessible as I can, so send me an email, find me on Facebook, become a fan of NJ FBLA, or follow my blog on the NJ FBLA website. We will continue holding regional conference calls and the regional breakfast, tentatively scheduled for the first week in December. FBLA shares a partnership with the March of Dimes. To unite our region in a community service event, I will be holding a March of Dimes “Fight for Preemies” Dodgeball Tournament in early March. In this region-wide event, exclusively for the North Central Region, teams from local chapters will face off to raise money for the March of Dimes. More details will follow, so stay updated! Once again, thank you for this opportunity. It is truly an honor and I am thrilled to get to know all of you as we Create a Legacy with NJ FBLA. Kind regards, David Li northcentral@njfbla.org
Greetings Northern Region! I hope you are ready to kick off the new school year with even more determination and motivation than ever before. With all the opportunities, community service, and support that FBLA provides, it is easy to feel the difference we are making in helping each other build a better tomorrow. However, it takes more than a simple walk and a donation to achieve true success. We should all aspire to participate and help in all that FBLA does through our love and passion of our organization. This means that we should all strive not only to do the best we can in our competitions, but put our energy in sharing our time and talent on a state and national level. Furthermore, each member can make a difference by sending in your suggestions, questions, and comments to your State Officers on how to make your FBLA experience a memorable one. As we begin preparing for our upcoming conferences and events, please feel free to contact me with all your thoughts and ideas. I hope to see all of you soon and I wish you all the best of luck in the new school year! Best wishes, KyungSun Lee northern@njfbla.org
Dear Central Region, I am Michael Harrington, your trusty Central Region VP. I need all of you to do me a favor - introduce yourself to me. Go to Facebook and search “Michael Harrington.” Add me as a friend, and introduce yourself! We need to get to know each other. When you elected me your Vice President, I told you I wanted to unify the region. I cannot do that without your help. The first step towards unity is an introduction. I am here for you: to answer your questions, share stories, and to help you make your FBLA experience this year incredible. I’m always open to invitations to attend a local chapter meeting. In fact, I would love to be invited to your meetings, community service events, fundraisers, or just anything you would like to invite me to! Speaking of invitations, make sure you’re on the lookout for my updates about my Presidential Breakfast which will be held sometime after we head down to Washington DC for the NFLC. It will be held in the beautiful Flemington, NJ. Remember to keep checking my blog on the NJFBLA website for any and all updates! My kindest regards, Michael Harrington central@njfbla.org
Dear Southern Region: Welcome to another year of FBLA! As your Southern Region Vice President, I am here to spread awareness of the organization and open your eyes to all of the wonderful opportunities FBLA has to offer. FBLA helps you gain valuable leadership skills, build self confidence, and become a responsible citizen. I will share my achievements as an FBLA member and work with our Southern Region chapters to create a legacy. As an active member of my local chapter, Camden County Technical School-Pennsauken Campus, I am currently assisting with membership, helping to coordinate our community service project for the March of Dimes, organizing the Southern Region President’s Breakfast, and preparing for this year’s competitive events. I will be hosting the Southern Region Competitive Events at Mercer County College, and I hope to see all of you there! Participating in competitive events is an experience you definitely don’t want to pass up. Good luck for a successful year with FBLA. I look forward to working with you! Sincerely, Melanee Santos southern@njfbla.org
By: Vishva Mehta and Laura Sorice Membership VP and Historian (respectively) NJFBLA has instituted two new committees this year! The 2010-2011 Membership and Publicity Committees consist of local members from throughout the state whoa re interested in taking an active role in our state chapter The Membership Committee will he chaired by Vishva Mehta and the Publicity Committee will be chaired by Laura Sorice, the Historian. The Membership Committee focus on increasing membership and encouraging current members to remain active. The Publicity Committee will concentrate on publicizing and creating The Spotlight. We can’t wait to see what these two groups will contribute to our state as we continue to “Break Barriers” together!
PUBLICITY COMMITTEE Grace Chen Swet Patel Darshil Dharia Tim Mansure Kaitlin Chaung Amanda Mancini Truman Liu Daniel Abraham Eva Wu Arjun Vijayakumar Yash Petel
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Darshil Dharia Tim Mansure Swet Patel Ravi Trivedi William Cheng After reviewing several applications, we are confident that the members of these two committees will accomplish great things this year! -Laura Sorice; Vishva Metha: Committee Chairs
This past summer, FBLA members from across the nation competed in Nashville Tennessee. Not only did NJ members prove to be “simply the best” at the awards ceremony, they also enjoyed to life and culture of music city. Here’s what our members had to say!
AS D OL A W N O C S A Y PAR ANTHON AS ER VP d ELECTED be involve to y it n u onal the opport r the Nati fo n “I enjoyed ig a p ony’s cam !” with Anth r this year fo it a w ’t an Bridge HS Board. I c ld O — z e u elasq -Jennifer V
NJ WENT LINE DANCING AT THE WILD HORSE SALOON “The wild horse was awesome because the whole state of New Jersey had the chance to be together and have a night of fun!” -Amanda Mancini— Pompton Lakes HS
CLICK THIS PICTURE TO VIEW THE NATIONALS WINNERS
THE PETED AT M O C S R E NTION ME MB E CONVE L IL V H S NA CENTER ere is year! Th th t a e r g were tion, "Nationals d competi o o g , s d n frie usic!" were good country m T A E R G e HS rs igh Point and of cou H — th u o ulgam -Mark Wo
MEMBERS ENJOYED GORMET CUPCAKES FROM “GIGI’S” “Everyone loved the cupcakes from Gigi’s. They were unlike anything I have ever tasted before. -Sonali Choudhary— Piscataway HS
INTERVIEW WITH F
At the conclusion of last year, two of the previous NJ FBLA state officers, Sam Bh tional Officer, Mr. Frank Benowitz. Hopefully you will enjoy read Sam: You were involved with FBLA at a local, state and national level. In what ways did FBLA impact you? Mr. Benowitz: FBLA-PBL provided me with the intrinsic tools necessary to lead. To this day, I always remind officers that they are members first - relating to my answer to question #1 and satisfaction of customer needs. As an officer at the local, state and national level, I remembered those skills learned as a member and what my fellow members and I truly wanted from our organization. Therefore, my ability to truly lead was well nurtured through my involvement as a FBLA-PBL officer. A true leader is one chosen by his/her peers to serve as their representative, it is an honor and a privilege, one that I never took for granted. I worked hard to represent my fellow members and gained tremendous listening and communication skills from these experiences. To summarize my answer, the impact of FBLA-PBL for me was life-changing. I have and always will be in debt to FBLA-PBL for providing me with opportunities to travel (attending conferences) and to receive training in a multitude of areas that solidified the foundation of my classroom education. Furthermore, my officer training helped me to achieve many of our FBLA-PBL goals—specifically, FBLA -PBL made my transition from school to work smooth and successful. The knowledge I acquired, the friends I made and the experiences I enjoyed would not have been possible without this organization. Sunny: Was there anything in particular that drew you toward business? Mr. Benowitz: As I always teach my students, anything and everything relates in some way, shape or form to business. I guess I found that old saying to be true...if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. As a result, my focus in teaching business is to remind my students that the number one reason that we are in business is to “satisfy our customers’ needs” and in turn, we expect to make a profit. Therefore, our focus is always on customer service/satisfaction - then, your customer will see the value of your good and/or service and hopefully pay your asking price (keeping informed that your business must generate a profit to stay in business). Sunny: We are currently enduring a harsh economic period. What do you feel that today’s generation can change in the economic landscape? Mr. Benowitz: My thoughts and hope for today’s generation to realize quickly that success is not measured by money. We can replace almost any material item. People cannot be replaced. Therefore, I feel that today’s generation should focus economic resources on saving lives through medical
FRANK BENOWITZ
hakuni and Sunny Shah, sat down with the “Voice of NJFBLA” and previous Nading about this interview just as much as they enjoyed hosting it! research and advancements, saving our environment through energy saving technology and ending war and famine throughout the world. After all, what the world spends on war/defense in a year could probably feed every human being in the entire the world for a lifetime with plenty of change left over. As an extra credit project in our Introduction to Business class, I will often have students write down and submit the lyrics from John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’. Although these thoughts shared may be idealistic, I truly think that today’s generation could make peace and humanity into economic success for our entire world - imagine economic prosperity achieved by helping one another to have a better existence. That might not be easy, but it is worth a try. Sam: What does leadership mean to you? Mr. Benowitz: As said in my answer to the previous question, leadership means to be chosen by your group to take charge. Additionally, it means that you must have followers - to lead without followers is pointless. A leader has the ability to have followers want to do whatever it takes to accomplish a goal the key word is “want”. Today’s complex world is searching for leaders, thus, President Obama was elected in the hope of much needed change. No one ever said or will ever say that taking on the role of a leader is easy, President Obama is finding that out each and every day - if he loses followers, he will lose his ability to lead. Sometimes, leadership requires reminding your followers why they chose you and the first place and that you still need their support to accomplish the original tasks/goals set forth, regardless of how difficult the road may be at times. Leadership, like the known adage about life, is a journey; as such, it is important to have your followers stay on board for the ride and assist you as the leader to reach your destination together. Sunny: Who is your role model? Why? Mr. Benowitz: There are many people that I admire from past history and current times. Our former FBLA-PBL CEO, Dr. Edward Miller, is definitely among those that I admire as well as my parents and grandparents. As strange as it may sound, the only role model that I could possible say I had growing up as a young child was fictional - Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties. His love of economics and business was inspirational to me. His nonchalant caring about others was something that I also found similar to my own. I am not one to wear emotions on my sleeve and am hesitant to answer such questions that divulge anything personal about myself - especially that my one and only role model was a TV character from my childhood. However, Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton also taught me to tell the truth, and there you have it.
By: Evan Murphy Parliamentarian Join NJ FBLA in Creating a Legacy This Fall! Mark your calendar, because in a few weeks it will be time for New Jersey FBLA to make itself known to the world as we all join in Creating a Legacy at this year’s State Fall Leadership Conference! This action-packed one day event for local chapter officers throughout our state will feature unforgettable workshops, a motivational keynote speaker, and of course… delicious food! Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to meet hundreds of other local chapter officers from around the state, as well as the state officer team. Speaking from personal experience, there truly aren’t enough words to capture the excitement of this conference. At my first SFLC, I made so many new friends and built relationships with people that I still have to this day. I also learned so much from the workshops I attended and was inspired by the keynote speaker. I highly recommend that all local chapter officers make every effort to attend this great event! This year’s workshop topics will include duties of officers, chapter management, transitioning from FBLA to PBL, new national and state programs, and various aspects of business. Members will be able to sharpen their leadership and business skills by participating in this conference. To attend, local chapter officers should talk to their advisers. For all the latest information on this year’s SFLC, including the date and location, remember to check our state website, www.njfbla.org. Hope to see you at the conference!
We are always looking for new writers to contribute to The Spotlight! If you are interested, please contact your State Historian, Laura Sorice, at historian@njfbla.org