We interviewed Jackson Erb, Vice President of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), about the FBLA organization and its role in the community.

Q. What is the FBLA?

A. “FBLA is a business organization specializing in preparing high school students for a career in business and teaching them the skills necessary to succeed in life. There’s also a division for college that helps them [college students] prepare for the same thing.”

Q. What is your role in FBLA?

A. “I am the Vice President in FBLA.  I  take over for the President when he cannot come to meetings, and I also help oversee and plan our activities with the rest of the executive board.”

Q. What is the FBLA planning on doing this year?

A. “We are planning on doing an FBLA Olympics later this year and having a sort of dinner to celebrate people who have won awards at FBLA competitions or passed their W!SE exam.”

Q. What made you join FBLA?

A. “[MHS business teacher Diane] Zawadzki asked me to compete in a personal finance competition, where I took a timed test, and I had quite a fun time, so I stuck with it. Then we went and did March of Dimes, which is an organization that holds marches and events in order to raise awareness and accumulate funding for premature babies, and other stuff like that, so I decided to continue it this year.”

Q. Why is FBLA important to you?

A. “It’s given me a lot of opportunities to meet new people and kind of expand my comfort zone, as when there are that many people you have to get good at talking to people and articulating well, so its been a good experience. I’ve met people from the USA, China, Haiti, and Puerto Rico at Nationals.”

Q. Tell me about your trip to California.

A. “After getting moved from from 3rd place to 2nd place in the state FBLA competition in Personal Finance, we fundraised to gather enough money for our trip to Anaheim, California. We left from Virginia a little early in order to enroll in the Institute for Leaders. In the Institute for Leaders, I listened to a plethora of speakers who spoke on topics such as management styles and which type of manager would work the best for us, stress management, and a bunch of other anecdotes from businessmen/businesswomen about their success in business. We also went to Disneyland because Zawadzki was able to finance it with her Disney Reward card. My competition was just a multiple choice test that I’m pretty sure I got clobbered in, as I didn’t place in the top 10 out of like 94. Overall fun trip though.”

Q. What other extracurricular activities are you invested in?

A. “Last year I wrestled, and I plan on continuing that this year. I’m doing Model UN, National Honor Society, and Student Congress- which is a branch of debate and forensics.”

Q. What are your plans after high school?

A. “I’m in the early college program, I hopefully want to move onto UVA or William and Mary, I want to major in computer engineering or computer science.”