Mark Hong, a member of the Corning-Painted Post High School Future Business Leaders of America Chapter (FBLA), participated in the 2024 National FBLA Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida in late June. Over 10,000 students from across the nation as well as Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and China, competed for top honors in their events. It was an exciting conference for Mark and his CPPHS Chapter Advisor, CPP teacher Mrs. Sharon Wilcox. “This was not only Mark’s first National Conference, but mine as well,” she said. “The energy, enthusiasm and professionalism of the young people attending the conference was inspiring!”
Mark competed in the Job Interview event at Nationals. He achieved this opportunity by placing 3rd in this event at the New York State level. He said, “It was a great experience and I met a lot of people at the conference.” He added, “There were so many impressive presentations from all across the country and world.”
Mark, who is now a senior, plans to attend business school after high school. He plans to pursue a career in the financial industry or in the finance department at a company, possibly as an accountant. His educational path started at Erwin Valley Elementary and he attended ASMS. He also recently held an internship at Corning Incorporated and said that was a great experience for him and he learned a lot.
The CPPHS Chapter of FBLA has been growing and active since 2016. The mission of FBLA is “to inspire and equip students to become community-minded business leaders through leadership experiences and career preparation.” FBLA's motto is "Service, Education, and Progress". Even though the word “Business” is incorporated in the title, FBLA is beneficial to all students. It fosters leadership, networking, friendship, and skills that can be utilized throughout a student’s lifetime.
The Chapter holds a District meeting in late January/early February that allows its members to compete in events that can place them in a semi-finalist position to attend the State Conference held in April of each year. Events can be individual or team, objective testing or performance and be from a host of categories out of 55+ events, such as Job Interview, Marketing, Business Management, Web Design, Sales Presentation, Journalism, Accounting and other related areas. Competing at the NYS level allows the students the opportunity to place first through fourth in their event to qualify for the National Leadership Conference. First place winners at the State level are given a partial scholarship to attend Nationals. The National Leadership Conference (NLC) Scholarship is a program designed to help fund conference and travel-related costs for FBLA High School members to attend the NLC.
The NLC Scholarship includes a $500 check, plus a complimentary registration to the NLC ($195). Scholarship money must be used for conference and travel-related expenses. Up to 50 scholarships are awarded each year.
Being a member of the high school chapter of FBLA is also a positive for a student’s transcript when applying for colleges and universities. It also allows its members one of the best ways to represent their high school. Mrs. Wilcox said there were 20 active members in the previous school year. All of them supported or participated in activities at the CPPHS Chapter, local, state and national levels. She said, “They made a difference and had a positive impact on fellow students, teachers, their high school chapter and the CPP District at large.”
If students are interested in more information or joining the Corning-Painted Post HS Chapter, please contact President Ethan Jiang, one of the participating members or Mrs. Sharon Wilcox, CPP HS Advisor.