By KRISHAN PATEL
Staff Writer
The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Club is once again able to accept members, even if they have not taken a specific Career and Technical Education (CTE) course.
“[Normal] members no longer need to be enrolled in a business course to participate in FBLA, but anyone interested in running for a Section or State Officer position will need to enroll in Virtual Enterprise,” President of FBLA Isabelle Zhou (Sr.) said.
News that members of FBLA would have to enroll in a CTE course initially came as a shock to many members. The Board of FBLA was initially concerned that the requirement to enroll in a yearlong CTE course would dissuade members from continuing and new members from joining.
“Last year, the state of California passed a law that said members of certain business clubs, including FBLA and HOSA, must be enrolled in or have been enrolled in a CTE course,” Vice President of FBLA Nancy Wu (Sr.) said. “At Uni, our options were to take either Virtual Enterprise or an ROP [Regional Occupation Program] class in either business or finance.”
The law caused many club members to worry over whether or not they would be allowed to continue in FBLA the next year, since the law originally pertained to all students who wanted to join the club or continue as members.
“We tried to find a way for members to participate in FBLA without being in a CTE class, but that didn’t end up working out,” Wu said. “Towards the end of the year, we informed everybody that for this year people must be in a CTE or they could not participate in FBLA. A little while later, we found out that AP Computer Science also met the requirements, but that still wasn’t enough.”
The club, however, was saved when they were informed of a provision of the law that allowed the club to continue for an indefinite amount of time.
“In the middle of summer, we found out that CAFBLA has given us an indefinite grace period so that normal members don’t have to be in a CTE class,” Wu said. “FBLA is now open, once again, to anyone who wishes to join and learn skills about various aspects of business, finance and economics.
“Joining FBLA is definitely worth it,” Zhou said. “It will transform your high school experience for the better and you will develop many valuable skills along the way.”
FBLA meets every Wednesday in Room 510 during lunch and participates in a variety of in-school and out of school events.
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