Eastern PBL Wins Regional & National Honors
(Press Release 7-26-04)
Hank Mooney, Office of Public Information

PBL National Leadership Conference News Article—2004

“Rocky Mountain high” is how students of Eastern Oklahoma State College’s Phi Beta Lambda chapter felt as they won regional and national honors at this year’s National Leadership Conference in Denver, CO. Future Business Leaders of America/Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA/PBL) is a professional association of students pursuing business careers. Attending the national conference were Carmen Beers, Jacob McKenzie and Kyle Rust, Hartshorne; Tommy Gonzales and Chris Mervyn, McAlester; Jackie Caughern, LeFlore; Amber Hubler and Belinda Keith, Quinton; Lindy Morgan and Jeremy Pebley, Wilburton; Brigitte Noah, Red Oak; and co-advisors Estella Bennett-Mask, Linda Morgan and Harold Bogard.

The team of Caughern, Morgan, and Pebley placed first in the Community Service Project with a written and oral presentation describing the year-long activities conducted by Eastern’s PBL chapter in raising money and awareness concerning cancer. Morgan also placed first with the Local Chapter Annual Business Report. Hubler, Keith, and Rust placed second in the American Enterprise Project with a written report and oral presentation outlining the interactive workshop Millionaire Square in which Eastern students learned about savings, investing, the free enterprise system, and proposed economic policies of the presidential candidates. Hubler placed third and Keith placed second in the Word Processing competition. In addition, Beers competed in Business Law, Caughern in Management, Gonzales in Information Management and Network Design, and Mervyn in Computer Concepts and Network Design. Also, competing were McKenzie in Computer Concepts, Morgan in Economics, Noah in Job Interview, Pebley in International Business, and Rust in Future Business Executive.

More than 1,500 students from around the nation competed in 40 events representing a range of business, career, and leadership activities. Eastern students became eligible to compete at the national conference after placing in the top five at Oklahoma’s state conference in April. “We have spent many hours in practice and review preparing for this competition and we are very proud of our students’ accomplishments,” said co-advisor Bennett-Mask. Co-advisor Harold Bogard was honored as Oklahoma’s Outstanding Chapter Advisor at the conference.

The Eastern PBL Chapter also received the Gold Seal Chapter of Merit Award. “This award is given in recognition of outstanding achievements by a chapter during the year,” stated co-advisor Morgan. Additional chapter awards included second place at the regional level for recruitment of Professional Division members and the Outstanding Chapter Recognition Award for activities to enrich the experiences of members at the local, regional, state and national levels.

Caughern, Gonzales, Morgan, Rust and Ashley Smallwood, who was unable to attend, received the Membership Madness Award for recruiting five new members each into the local chapter. Beers, Mervyn, Morgan and Noah also attended the Institute for Leaders training, conducted two days prior to the beginning of the conference, graduating with honors. Morgan and Noah went through an intense application process and received scholarships to attend the Institute for Leaders training. Morgan also received a scholarship to attend the National Leadership Conference. “I feel honored to have received the scholarships and the opportunity to attend the special leadership training,” said Morgan. The scholarships were based upon demonstration of leadership skills, participation in Phi Beta Lambda and academic performance.

In addition to the competitive events, students and advisors attended career and motivational workshops and campaigned for and elected regional and national officers. Phi Beta Lambda, the postsecondary division of FBLA-PBL, Inc., has approximately 11,000 members in 461 chartered chapters. There are four levels of participation, middle school, high school, post-secondary, and professional.

(Submitted Photo)
Caption Info:

Eastern PBL members attending the National Leadership Conference recently in Denver, CO include from front left: Jackie Coughern from LeFlore; Brigitte Noah, Red Oak; Lindy Morgan, Wilburton; Carmen Beers, Hartshorne; Amber Hubler, Quinton and Belinda Keith, Quinton. Second row: Linda Morgan and Estella Bennett-Mask, Co-Advisors; Jeremy Pebley, Wilburton; Kyle Rust, Hartshorne; Chris Mervyn, McAlester and Harold Bogard, Co-Advisor. Back row: Jacob McKenzie from Hartshorne and Tommy Gonzales from McAlester.