SCC recognized with top honors at PBL National Leadership Conference

Published: 07/22/2015

Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL), held its PBL National Leadership Conference in Chicago June 24-27. Participants from across the United States attended the conference to enhance their business skills, expand their networks and participate in more than 55 business and business-related competitive events.

St. Charles Community College students Maria Pizzo and Kevin Gajdos of St. Charles, Joey Gallagher of Weldon Spring, Muhammad Farhan Ullah Babar of St. Louis and Elena Huffman of Wentzville received national recognition at the PBL Awards of Excellence Program on June 27.

Pizzo, Gajdos and Gallagher competed in Business Ethics and brought home sixth place. The Business Ethics event required members to research an ethical topic dealing with global business and sweatshops and/or child labor.

Babar and Huffman competed in Desktop Publishing and took fourth place. The Desktop Publishing event required members to design a poster, brochure, business card and quarter-page ad for a local band.

Maria Pizzo was also selected as the Who’s Who in PBL recipient for the state of Missouri. This award honors PBL members who have made outstanding contributions to the association at the local, state and national levels. Earlier this spring, Pizzo was also elected the Missouri PBL President for the upcoming 2015-16 academic year.

In addition to member awards, the St. Charles Community College chapter of Phi Beta Lambda received the Gold Seal Chapter Award of Merit (The Hollis and Kitty Guy Award) for participating in projects and programs identified with the goals of FBLA-PBL. The Missouri State PBL Chair nominates chapters for this award, and only two chapters in each state can be nominated. The chapter also received recognition for a significant increase in membership, and chapter advisor, Andrea Compton, received the Outstanding Local Chapter Advisor award as well.

“This has been an incredible year for our chapter, and it has been a lot of fun and very rewarding to work with this group of students. Our chapter officers provided strong and motivating leadership, and our members were excited and eager to make the most of every opportunity for networking, leadership events, community service, fundraising and conferences all year long,” said Andrea Compton, SCC PBL Chapter Advisor.        

The awards were part of a comprehensive national competitive events program sponsored by FBLA-PBL that recognizes and rewards excellence in a broad range of business and career-related areas. For many students, the competitive events are the capstone activity of their academic careers.

In addition to the competitions, students immersed themselves in educational workshops, visited an information-packed exhibit hall and attended motivational keynotes on a broad range of business topics.

For more information about the SCC chapter of Phi Beta Lambda, contact chapter advisor Andrea Compton at acompton@stchas.edu or 636-922-8321.

Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc., the largest and oldest student business organization, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) education association with a quarter million members and advisers in over 6,500 active middle school, high school, and college chapters worldwide. Its mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. The association is headquartered in Reston, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C. For more information, visit fbla-pbl.org.

St. Charles Community College is a public, comprehensive two-year community college with associate degrees and certificate programs in the arts, business, sciences and career-technical fields. SCC provides workforce training and community-based personal and professional development as well as cultural, recreational and entertainment opportunities. For more information, visit www.stchas.edu.