Students bound for business at FBLA conference

BRADENTON – It looked easy, but even a group of young and physically fit local students found getting through the "cube" a challenge.

A group of students shows off the completed "cube" that was part of the teamwork project that they had to complete.

In a field behind Woodland Community Church on State Road 70, several groups of 10 people worked through challenges that involved teamwork, decision-making and problem-solving. Under the supervision of facilitator Don Batchelder of Deltona, members of one group, some of whom were students at Braden River High School, figured out how to assemble a cube from PVC pipe in a bag, then pass through it while it was on the ground.

Batchelder told them they had to enter the cube from one side and exit from another without touching the pipes, and all sides save the one on the ground were good. So Marccale Carley, a 17-year-old junior at Braden River, did a little wind-up and leaped out of the cube. He had to do it a couple of times because invariably someone would touch the pipes on the way in or out.

After they were successful at that task, Batchelder upped the ante. He balanced the cube on a side, then told the kids they had to pass through it again without touching it. Keeping the cube up on a windy day was a challenge, and getting everyone through meant the group had to work together and figure out how to do it.

The students tried various means to get Preston Tam, 18 and a senior, through the openings, basically by picking her up and passing her to the others. Imagination was working overtime as the students tried to figure out how to get the mission accomplished and then get the others through the cube.

Other groups dealt with the same challenge, and one student on the other side of the field simply took a running start and dove through the cube successfully.

Sitting in a warm coat, Linda Albritton, a middle school adviser in Avon Park in Highlands County, said the exercise was teaching plenty to her students.

"They're working pretty well together," she said. And they were, until the cube fell over again.

The program teaches them to work together and the speakers tell them of the importance of education.

"Just to teach them that there is a future out there," Albritton said.

Replacement workers

That was the message spread by Doug Wagner, director of adult and career technical education with the Manatee County school district.

The District Leadership Conference held Thursday covers a five-county area, and students from Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto, Hardee and Highlands counties came to compete and learn.

Unemployment may be around 12 percent now, Wagner told the 400 students who assembled at the beginning of the leadership conference, but there will be jobs in the future and their generation will be the ones who fill them. This is part of the getting ready for the job market, he said, and everything they learn is relevant.

You've all talked to fellow students who don't want to be involved with the Future Business Leaders of America, he said.

Marccale Carley jumps out of the center of the cube.

"You're doing things that go beyond and above the call of duty," he said. "You're bettering yourselves. People think that FBLA is just about the competitions you're preparing for and getting ready to compete in, and they're partly right. But the biggest thing about FBLA is that you're in a competition called life."

Everyone is in that competition, he said, including those who are advising you and judging your work.

As for the work force, he told the students that many of them may know people who are unemployed at present or losing their homes.

"But that's going to change, and I'll tell you why," Wagner said. "The baby boomers in this country, and those are the people who were born from 1946 to 1964, are starting to retire, and they're going to retire over the next 15 years. And of the 50 million jobs that they hold right now, 34 million jobs are going to come open."

You'll be ready to move into one of those jobs because you'll have the skills, he told the students.

Looking ahead

Sally Rikard, a 30-year teacher in Manatee County who works at Palmetto High School, said the students in her group focused on everything from public speaking and job interviewing to Web site development and many other fields in technology. She teaches digital design and Web design, as well as being the FBLA adviser.

"We have a great county," she said. "I thoroughly enjoy it. I still enjoy teaching. I still like being with the kids. My daughter graduates this year. She's in FBLA at Palmetto."

Students who win will go on to the state competition in Orlando in April, and winners at that event will go on to the national competition in Nashville in the summer.

Rikard proudly showed off her students sitting in two rows in the auditorium, and several got up to talk about their projects.

Matthew Kish, 16, an 11th-grader, said he was doing "business procedures," which he described as hard. The club makes school more fun, and he said he hopes to get a college degree in business.

Ben Durrance, 16, and also in 11th grade, is competing in impromptu speaking and performance. He's also the president of the club at Palmetto. "We have our meetings at least once or twice a month, and we'll work on our event and any important dates, fundraising, community service," he said.

For the future, Ben's hoping to be a sports agent and represent athletes.

Cybersecurity is the future for Christopher Wadelle, 18 and a senior. He's also the vice president of the Palmetto club.

"I hated school before this," he said. "But now this is pretty cool. I like this."

Moving up in middle school

Brandon Gaitanis, 12, a seventh-grader at Buffalo Creek Middle School, was to give a presentation about Earth Day, its history and what it celebrates.

Palmetto High School students Taylor Burris, from left, Anthony Tillett, Christopher Hessian, Christopher Wadelle and Chase Patrick at the FBLA event on Thursday.

"I'm hoping to get a good job," he said about his hopes for the future. "Either an engineer, or I might join the military, then I'm going to get a good job" with a large company in electronics.

"I like everything about modems and routers and stuff," Brandon said.

His adviser, John Labelle, brought 22 students from Buffalo Creek to the event. He teaches business and computer applications.Yes, in the sixth through eighth grade.

This kind of training at the middle school level focuses them more on jobs and careers, he said, and how to behave professionally.

”We had 20 students go to the leadership conference in Orlando, staying in four-star rated, five-star rated hotels, first opportunity for a lot of them to have that experience,“ Labelle said. ”Dressing up and being professional, also the competitions and conferences bring them together and allow them to use these skills we’re teaching in class.“

It’s about teaching the ”soft skills,“ he said, like how to greet and network with people.

”A lot of the appeal to the organization in middle school is really the opportunity to travel and be outside of the classroom,“ he said. ”All my advertising is fun and travel. They like that. They’re out of school for a day, but look at what they’re learning from being out of school.“

One little experience at this event can change their whole perspective, and even if they compete and win at the district level but don’t win at the state level, they learn a lot, Labelle said.

Teaching job-related skills early is important, he said, because students want to see relevance.

” ÔWhy do I need to learn this stuff’,“ teachers are asked at times, he said. The right answer is, ”Here’s why. Here’s the application of it.“

And it’s about how you carry yourself, Labelle said, pointing out a well-dressed student of his.

”This Caleb Francois is going to be a success because he behaves successfully,“ he said.

Caleb, 11, is a sixth-grader at Buffalo Creek, and he’ll be speaking on ”The Nature of Business.“

How did he prepare? ”I practiced and practiced,“ he said.

Caleb’s goal is to be a historian when he grows up.

Back where it’s warm

Some groups went to another area for judging after the event began, but others went outside for the exercises involving the PVC cubes.

An hour or so later, they came back in after their efforts at passing through the cubes.

It was a team building exercise and it worked, said Tam, the 18-year-old Braden River High School senior.

”It just really made you realize that teamwork and planning are huge factors in everything that you do,“ she said.

As for the cube, ”We had really good ideas, but the wind, I’m going to blame it on the wind,“ she said.

Daniel Crumpler, 14, a ninth-grader at Braden River, said it was fun. ”I expected this to be just boring, doing tests and stuff,“ he said.

Victoria Gilbertson, 16, an 11^th-grader, also thought it was fun.

”I just learned that you need a lot of people to do one simple thing,“ she said. ”It’s not as easy as it looks.“

Wagner, the Manatee school district official, said this all enhances what the students learn in their classroom.

”The kids are applying what they learn in the classroom to the real world,“ he said. ”The real world is you and I and Stefano (the cameraman from EdTV), we’re out doing it, we’ve got to interact with people, we’ve got to prove ourselves every day or we’re not going to have a job.

”These kids are learning that there is a real world outside of their classroom walls. We do it here in Manatee County because we want them to experience the real world.“