A sneak peek at my life.
With another year of being in the Future Business Leaders of America organization, comes another Northern Section Leadership Conference. Every February, chapters from high schools all over Northern California come together to network, learn about business, and compete in competitive events through the FBLA National Awards Program.
I always look forward to FBLA competitions because I can choose something new to learn about, study, and test my knowledge on various business topics.
Everyone knows that snow melts. Whether you have some fun, build a snowman, and have a snowball fight, or you just sit by and watch, the snow will always melt. This same idea applies to time. You can use it to accomplish your tasks and create something awesome, or you can watch it tick by. Similar to snow, no matter how you use it, or if you even use it at all, time melts away. Might as well figure out how to use it to your advantage, right?
This first half of navigating high school and getting into the swing of things has given me the opportunity to develop ways to succeed and dominate the next two years using all I have learned! So, as the new school year draws closer and closer, I wanted to start sharing some helpful tips I’ve learned throughout my first two years of high school such as time management, study strategies, reducing stress, and more.
As April comes closer and closer, so does the California State Competition for FBLA chapters from schools across the state. FBLA stands for Future Business Leaders of America and it’s all about preparing students for their future careers in business by participating in competitive events, leadership development, and many educational programs.
In the beginning of the year, each section of the state (Northern, Southern, Central, Bay, Gold Coast, and Inland) hosts their Section Leadership Conference where students can sign up to partake in various competitive events to hopefully win and move on to compete at state. My team and I decided to try participating in some of these competitive events at our Northern Section Leadership Conference (NSLC). Here’s a little bit about what they are:
Starting high school last year, and getting to finally be a high school student with my friends, has been an incredible experience. Freshman year was awesome! High school is a lot different than I imagined, considering I got all of my ideas of high school from High School Musical and Bring It On. It was not like those movies at all! Nevertheless, it was a fun year full of memories, ups and downs, and a lot of “first time” things.
After the first few days, my friends and I even found an “our spot” where we eat lunch every single day together!
The second semester spirit week for this year was Fire vs. Ice theme to go along with the VAPA rally. The dress up days could have been better, but my friends and I still dressed up every day! All of the days were underclassmen against upperclassmen and everyone really wanted to beat each other to win.
Today was a school holiday and instead of relaxing and enjoying the day off, some of the Leadership Team and I went to the Placer Food Bank to volunteer. We bagged 540 bags that go to kids for their weekend meals. It’s an amazing feeling to know that you did something good for your community and got to help people in need. It was really neat getting to see and learn about how Placer Food Bank gives so much food to, not only children, but entire families also. It was a great experience to bond with some of the girls from the SVMS Leadership Team and to support a good cause.
Placer Food Bank supplies our local hunger-relief partners with the food necessary to bring hope and nourishment to those in need, so that they can focus on what matters most: raising their children, supporting their families, and giving back to their community.”
-Placer Food Bank
One thought. One thought is the most important. Be yourself and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise and if they do, they don’t deserve you. Being yourself is the most important thing in my mind. You are unique, special, and there is only one person in the 7 billion in the world that can be you. That person is you. Whether you are an athlete, a musician, and artist, a computer person, a cook, or any other thing there is out there it’s who you are. No one on the world could possibly be you, so you have to!
Eighth grade at Spring View has been amazing and I have loved it. I had great teachers and learned so much, plus laughed a lot. I was sad to leave that school, but I am so excited to go to high school!
Promotion was awesome because I got to give the closing speech, which I had to audition for in front of my classmates and my four core teachers. This was a huge deal for me because it means that my teachers actually liked me. Plus, I love public speaking. I was super nervous to give the speech at promotion because my entire academy of about 140 people and their whole families would be watching me. I practiced A LOT to the point where I practically memorized it. Doing over and over in my mirror helped a lot and then I had confidence in myself to do it. When it came to the day I presented it flawlessly and everyone was clapping loudly. My grandpa even gave me a standing ovation.
At Spring View Middle School, twice a year, the Leadership team puts on a rally. In a rally, each academy (Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale for seventh grade and USC Berkeley, and Stanford for eighth grade) competes against each other to see who’s the “best”. Everyone gets dressed up in their academy’s colors and there’s a lot of cheering and screaming which makes for an awesome day of friendly competition.
Each rally is a different theme. For example, last year we did a Hollywood Movie Premier rally and a Summer Olympics Rally. This time, we put on a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory one. Rallies take months of planning because we have to pick a theme, make decorations, think of tons of games, and perfect everything.
At my school there is a new student orientation program called WEB. WEB stands for “Where Everybody Belongs” and it’s all about giving the 7th graders a chance to meet new people before the school year starts. Eighth graders can sign up to be a WEB Leader and we plan a day full of games and activities.
During our summer, we spend a couple of days before hand to train for the WEB Day. We each have a partner along with a group of twelve to eighteen soon-to-be seventh graders. During the training days, we get with our partner and practice teaching the games and getting our assigned classrooms prepared.
