HHS FBLA 2009-2010
November 21, 2009
To All HHS FBLA Alumni, We would like to Thank you for your continued support of HHS FBLA throughout the years--we would never have come this far without the invaluable guidance and reinforcement of our alumni. In an effort to stay in touch with you, this year’s Homestead FBLA team will continue to keep you updated through three issues of the Hourglass, as well as through our website. This year’s officer team consists of 17 bright young students, including 4 seniors, 10 juniors, and 3 sophomores. Though unbalanced in both male and senior officers, the team is dominated by a majority of female and junior officers who will lead this team with an ambitious drive toward our objectives. If you have not already, familiarize yourself with this year’s goals and officer team through our 2009-2010 chapter newsletter.
Here are some “brief” updates on what’s going on so far this year:
Member and Budget Update Currently we have 242 members—just a little more than last year’s 226. But hey, we’re making good progress. So far, we’ve taken a loss of $2,758.61; however, Rui’s projection is that we should have a net profit of about $1,500 by the end of this year. We shall see. —Rui Guo Introducing the Public Speaking Committee We have continued many of last year’s activities and committees, including the Go Green Committee, the Business Relations Development Committee, and the Technology Committee. This year we have created a new Public Speaking Committee, envisioned by our senior member Braden Holstege and taught with assistance of an instruction team selected from speaking tryouts. The goal of this committee is to assist with competitions, classes, and any other area in which such skills can be beneficial. Members are taught different areas of speaking, such as personal, political, and impromptu speaking, with actual practice and feedback. We are planning to hold more meetings, expanding to a wide array of topics such as PowerPoint presentations and debates. Additionally, we would like to bring in outside organizations, such as Toastmasters, as guest speakers. —Anran Li Introducing the CMS TBLA Chair Position One very significant new change in our officer positions this year is the addition of a TBLA Chair, which is, effectively, our bridge to the Tomorrow’s Business Leaders of America student organization in the neighboring Cupertino Middle School, serving as a “prequel” to our high school FBLA. In the past, TBLA has always attended BSLC and SLC. We’ve had several students place in certain competitions at both BSLC and SLC. The wealth of knowledge presented to TBLA has opened up opportunities for students to do well in HHS FBLA.TBLA has been forming their own POW and in general, building some structure for itself. Furthermore, TBLA has been introduced to competition and has been working on the development of student store products. This year, TBLA will attempt to function as an independent unit. If you’d like to contact Sangeeta for more info, email her at cmschair@hhsfbla.com. —Sangeeta Mondal 1
Broomball Social ! ! ! January 2, 2010 BSLC (Lynbrook HS) February 2
4th Annual FUHSD Dodgeball Tournament (Lynbrook HS) March 11, 2010 SLC (Hyatt Regency, Irvine) April 15-18 End-of-the-year Banquet To Be Announced
NLC (Nashville, TN) July 14-17
President—
Kathy Sun (2010) VP Team Comps—
Alissa Song (2011)
VP Individual Comps—
Anh Cao (2011)
VP Fundraising and Business Development—
Wendy Zhao (2010) VP Tech—
Ben Low (2011)
Executive Tech Consultants—
Daniel Wong (2011) Desmond Lau (2010) Treasurer—
Rui Guo (2011) Reporter—
Gary Wan (2010) Activities Director—
Anran Li (2011) CMS TBLA Chair—
Sangeeta Mondal (2011) PwB Chairs—
Jasmine Stoy (2012) Evanny Huang (2012) AE Chairs—
Jessica Yi (2011) Evelyn Siu (2011) CS Chairs—
Sonia Koroleva (2011) Ella Pravetz (2012)
Updates on Projects and Committees Partnership with Business (PwB) The Partnership with Business project has created a very strong partnership with a well-known Silicon Valley company, NeuroSky, that manufactures seemingly science-fiction “brain-computer interface” technologies. Project members researched and learned about the company during various training sessions, in which NeuroSky representatives presented and demonstrated their product, the Mindset, to members while also allowing them to try out the product. To boost public speaking skills, we’ve created a Marketing Project and speaking workshops to prepare members for the Marketing Phase, in which they will directly market the product to consumers. For further updates, please visit the PwB news feed, or contact our chairs at pwb@hhsfbla.com.
—PwB Chairs American Enterprise (AE) This year we are focusing on career planning. Due to the rising unemployment rates, we feel that it is important for us to reach out to the next generation of job seekers and prepare them for this process. We have conducted surveys of parents’ career planning experience as well as student career interests. Currently, we are preparing for our workshop series, Mapping Out Your Future: An Introduction to Career Planning, which includes three classes: “The ABC’s of Career Planning,” “Job Search Through the Media,” and “Entrepreneurship 101,” while providing numerous internship opportunities for interested members. With our guidance, members apply to internships in their areas of interest. After the workshop series, we are working with NOVA to create presentations for at-risk teenagers. For further updates, please visit the AE news feed, or contact our chairs at ae@hhsfbla.com.
—AE Chairs Community Service Project (CS) To create awareness of healthy living and disease prevention, we have begun to educate members on these topics and put up posters around school. To further this, members are conducting research and presenting to local schools about the benefits of living a healthier, more productive lifestyle, while also attending volunteering events. We also hope to keep up a relationship with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital to hold a member-run fundraiser. For further updates, please visit the CS news feed, or contact our chairs at cs@hhsfbla.com.
—CS Chairs Go Green Committee This year, we plan to make the Go Green Committee more involved in raising awareness about “going green” not just at Homestead, but at Cupertino Middle School and in the surrounding community as well. Several ideas we have planned for Go Green Committee in the future include school-wide trash cleanups and a recycling day, and other events that will bring the entire school together to go green. In addition, we are planning on making presentations to Cupertino Middle School to stress the importance of our environment to middle-school students.
—Ben Low Tech Committee In our current age of ever-growing advancements in technology, we have divided the Tech Committee into the Programming, Graphics, and Tech Concepts Committees to help develop the member base into a wider range of technological possibilities. All of the committees are preparing members to take on larger projects by starting from the basics. The Programming Committee will be working on various projects for our FBLA website while continuing to broaden each member’s programming knowledge; the Graphics Committee will move on to design graphics not just for the FBLA website, but for our school and small business organizations as well. The Tech Concepts Committee will continue learning about the various aspects and components of computers and computer networking, while applying that knowledge in practical ways, such as assembling stronger computers. Currently, our Technology Committee is collaborating with well-renowned and recent Homestead graduate Winston Hsu on a new alumni website, which is set to be finished near the end of the school year. So for now be sure to check out our main website if you ever want to keep up with this year’s activities!
—Tech Team
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Thanks for all your support! Hope to see you at future events!”—Anran
“Thanks for all your support for Homestead FBLA! Go Green!” —Ben
“Thank you for bringing us to where we are now! FBLA would not have been the same without your support!”— Daniel
“Hey Alumni! Thanks for paving the way for Homestead FBLA! We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you guys!”—Jasmine “We’d like to thank HHS FBLA alumni Mr. Garrett Kuramoto for being such a great help with our career planning workshop series!”—AE
“We hope that you will see the impacts of the project in our community! Thanks for your interest!”—CS
“Thanks for leading our organization to where it stands today—we hope that FBLA has had a lasting impact on your experiences, your prospects, and your identity.”—Gary “Seniors of 2009 and alumni before them, you guys are an astounding group of people who have shaped the achievements of our chapter. I would never have met you guys without FBLA and I am thankful for all the lasting memories that I made last year. Good luck with your future as successful business leaders and know what your legacy will always remain here at Homestead.”—Evanny
“Thank you for all the support both past and present! I wish you all the best for the future! —Kathy
NLC 2009 Results Congratulations to all of last summer’s NLC competitors! The three schools in our district had led California to its Eleventh National FBLA Championship, earning over 70% of the state’s total points, while our school maintained its position as the top FBLA chapter in the nation. Homestead’s results can be found in our district’s press release here. Annual Broomball Social Announcement The annual Broomball social event will be held at the Palo Alto Winter Lodge (click for directions) on January 2nd from 8:30pm to 10:00 pm! Come to have fun and reconnect with past FBLA members as well as meet new ones. We hope to see you there! A Letter from our Adviser Dear Alumni, I truly hope that all of you are happy and healthy! Homestead FBLA now has a record 240 paid members this year and we are busy preparing for competition season. I hope that you all feel proud about the continued success of our chapter, which is a byproduct of the foundation that you helped create. This is a learning organization, and I'm pleased that the officer team is constantly looking for innovative ways to improve the experience for our members. If any of you are in town on March 11, the "4th Annual FUHSD Dodgeball Tournament" will take place at Lynbrook High School (tournament starts at around 6pm). Homestead FBLA started this event through our Community Service Project and the proceeds benefit the March of Dimes. In addition, all three FBLA advisers plan to participate. Homestead teachers train by playing against students that are serving detention with Louise. So if you want to see if the old guys still have game, come on out and support us! It is certainly worth a few laughs.
Best Regards, Byron Lee
Reporter’s Note Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedules to check up on us. I apologize for the lengthy email. Please, do not hurt your eyes. I encourage all alumni to provide me their current contact information, whether through email or Facebook, so that we may stay in touch. Please, tell anyone you may know who has been a part of Homestead FBLA in case we may be missing anyone--feel free to forward this. I also encourage you to share with me stories of your life after high school, not only because you may be featured in our next newsletter (smiley face), but also because it’s always nice to see how FBLA has shaped lives, and we will always need people to look up to. As a final note, we hope that you are doing well and are living a desirable life after FBLA, whether or not you have achieved your high school dreams. I hope that FBLA has, in some way, helped you reach your goals and made you who you are today. By being an FBLA alumnus, in our minds (and in the website database) you will never be forgotten. I hope that you will be able to take some time to reflect on your past memories, the good, the bad, and the unforgettably embarrassing. So keep up the good work.
Cheers, Gary Wan 2009-2010 Reporter reporter@hhsfbla.com Homestead High School FBLA 21370 Homestead Road Cupertino, CA 95014 www.hhsfbla.com
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Interested in being featured in the next newsletter? Feel free to send your name, class, FBLA officer position (if applicable) and a description of any major events that have happened in your life since FBLA to reporter@hhsfbla.com Any comments or feedback would be appreciated.
What we are really most proud of is the learning culture that we have embedded into our organizations, the positive, the encouraging environment where students come together to study business and also the unique cohesiveness we feel as chapters. I know all of us have made lasting friendships throughout FBLA, have pushed ourselves to limits beyond imagination, and also experienced opportunities that we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams. And these are all impacts that will continue with us even past our high school career. As we all head back to our chapters, we are excited to pass on this legacy to the members who aspire to become, and we know we will become, the future business leaders of America. — Alissa Song, California FBLA State Vice President, Homestead Vice President © 2009 Homestead Future Business Leaders of America - hhsfbla.com