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9 WHS FBLA members attend 2015 FBLA National Fall Leadership Conference

Students experience opportunity to enhance business knowledge & leadership skills

November 09, 2015

Nine members of the Wahoo High School chapter of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) attended the 2015 FBLA National Fall Leadership Conference in Omaha November 6-7, 2015, along with Adviser, Barb Shanahan.

Students attending were Jack Maass, Corby Brigham, Colin Grandgenett, Cole Talbert, Alyssa Lewandowski, Lucy Brooks, Austin Scott, Dylan Caples, Will Shanahan, and Austin Scott. 

Students and advisers participated in motivational general sessions, special interest sessions, seminars, workshops, tours, and other leadership development activities.

The weekend activities began with tours of Gallup and Nebraska Furniture Mart. Gallup has 40 offices located all over the world, one of them being in Omaha. Gallup originally began as a data collection firm, and has now expanded into many other areas such as business consultation. Their consultation business brings in people from all over the world to their Omaha office. 

Nebraska Furniture Mart is a Nebraska grown business and is now the largest furniture store in America, with additional locations in Iowa, Kansas, and Texas.

On both tours, the students were taken behind the scenes to see the operations of the business. 

The remainder of the weekend consisted of motivational speakers and seminars.

The opening session keynote speaker was Patty Hendrickson. Hendrickson is an energetic past FBLA and PBL member. Her message to the students was to “Own it, grow it, and be it. Don’t cheat the world out of your wonderful.” 

The closing speaker was former Nebraska football player Aaron Davis. Davis’ main message for the students was “Show me your friends, I will show you your future.”  

Students attended seminars all day Saturday. Some of these included “Networking Your Success,” “How to Dress for Success,” “International and Global Business,” and “Time Management and Success Skills.”

The students did have some free time in which they had the opportunity to network with students from many different states. There were approximately 2,500 students and advisers in attendance. They also were able to visit the Old Market and test out a variety of restaurants. The conference closed with a dance on Saturday night. 

Students had many favorable comments on the conference. 

Caples said he learned that “leadership is important” and his favorite part of the conference was the closing session when he and Will Shanahan were asked to hold up the Nebraska flag. 

When asked what their favorite part of the conference was, Maass said “making connections,” Shanahan commented, “I was always meeting new people, it was fun,” and Grandgenett liked “seeing how big and diverse FBLA really is.”