C.T.S.O. MATTERS
PINNACLE FBLA
Interview with Theresa Smith
BALTIMORE HOSTS
An emerging Chapter
FBLA NLC Conference
E-BUSINESS WINNERS
HAYDEN PAOLETTI
BADER ALRIFAI & NINAD KULKARNI
CONTENT ISSUE 1
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The Pinnacle of FBLA
07
Baltimore Hosts NLC
09
Interview: Theresa Smith
Interview with Pinnacle High School’s, First Place winning, E-Business Team.
Everything this city has to offer FBLA members attending FBLA 2018 NLC.
Interview with Pinnacle High School’s CTSO sponsor, Theresa Smith.
03 07 09
The
PINNACLE of FBLA
Tommorrow’s Business Leader (TBL) met with the Region 3 First Place winners in the E-Business category, Bader Alrifai, Ninad Kulkarni, and Hayden Paoletti, to discuss their recent accomplishment. TBL / Why did you decide to enter the E-Business category? Paoletti / We decided to enter the E-Business category, because we were intrigued by the topic of home food delivery. Kulkarni / We get to explore the future of business, ecommerce; and see the back end of how ecommerce business works as well as building the code and graphics. TBL / What steps did you take to tackle such a demanding task? Alrifai / First, we planned everything we wanted to have in our final product before we even started coding. We made wireframes, wrote the copy text, researched examples of other ecommerce sites, started to design the logo, and collect the images for our site, then finally started coding. TBL / How did you three come together as a team? Paoletti / We were able to come together through our passion for graphic design and our interest in coding as a whole. TBL / Is there a distinct leader amongst you three? Paoletti / I like to believe that we all work together cohesively, in different ways, as a team. We all definitely have our strengths in different parts of the design process. Kulkarni / We all know what each other is doing without having to discuss it. We also help each other out while maintaining our own work; it’s like we’re doing our own separate things but at the same time the separate tasks are all interconnected. TBL / What steps did you three take to make sure your website looked cohesive in the end? Kulkarni / From the very beginning, we knew we had to have a set design style for our website. So we planned out our colors-
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-and fonts at the very start of the design process, and we knew before we changed anything that we needed to talk to each other. TBL / How long did it take to complete the website?
Alrifai / A couple of months, start to finish. We had the planning process done before Winter Break. Then we started the website over the break and finished it up right before we had to submit it for Regionals. TBL / What was your biggest hurdle during this project?
Kulkarni / Definitely the responsive aspect of our site. Specifically the menu, for me personally, because there were a lot of components in there, and making sure everything was perfect. We had to use Java-script, and we didn’t have any knowledge of it, so we had to teach ourselves.
Paoletti / Also, coming up with the body copy for the menu was a large task we had to complete; we even referenced our school’s culinary teacher to make sure we had the terminology of the food correct. TBL / How was your presentation at regionals, and did you feel more prepared or nervous?
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Paoletti / I think we were all pretty nervous, speaking for everyone here, but we nailed the presentation. Kulkarni / I think we were all very confident in our product. We knew that our website is great; and we just have to do one more thing, present it. TBL / What was going through your heads when you were called
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up on stage during the awards ceremony? Paoletti / Well, we knew we were at least in the top three once we got called up. Alrifai / The announcer called the three teams up in random order to head to the stage, and once we were on stage the announcer called third place, and it wasn’t us; then they called out second place, and it wasn’t us.
Paoletti / After they called out the second place winner, we all sort of figured it out that we were the first place winners and all looked at each other until they finally announced that we were the first place winners. Alrifai / When we first got to the competition that day, we were fairly confident in our site, but then we saw another competitor’s website and we were ‘shook’
until the ceremony, but when we got called up I thought we for sure got third place and I was exuberant that we even placed, but to find out that we got first place, it was just so unexpected. TBL / How did your friends and family react to hearing you won first place at your first competition?
Kulkarni / When we won, I sent my dad a text and a picture of myself with my medal, and he was super excited for me and wanted me to call him right away. Paoletti / I did the same thing, and all my parents wanted to do was call me, but we were still in the awards ceremony.
TBL / Are you going to take the judges’ comments, and improve your website before submitting it for state? Paoletti / Of course, we have been updating it since the day we got back from Regionals; and feel confident with our chances at the State Competition.
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B A LT I
HOSTS FBLA NATIONAL LE
FBLA-PBL members have the competitive edge, as the best and br share their successes, and learn new ideas about shaping their car ence is considered the pinnacle of the FBLA-PBL experience, especia nerships with industry leaders to underwrite competitive even
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Photo by: Bob Burkhard
MORE
EADERSHIP CONFERENCE
rightest of FBLA and vv convene to compete in leadership events, reer future through workshops and exhibits. This four-day conferally for those running for national oďŹƒce. FBLA-PBL has forged partnts and scholarships for students achieving national ranking. Source: fbla-pbl.org
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Tommorrow’s Business Leader (TBL) sat down with Pinnacle High School’s FBLA chapter adviser, Theresa Smith, to talk about the importance of CTSOs (Carreer and Technical Student Organizations) and CTE (Carreer and Technical Education) classes in our country’s highschools, and the success of her fledging chapter. TBL / How long have you been teaching a CTE Class?
TBL / How have your students grown from being in FBLA?
Smith / I have been certified to teach CTE classes since 2002.
Smith / Because we are a fledgling chapter at Pinnacle with only two years under our belt, it is hard to gage exactly how much the students have grown as a result of their FBLA membership. Without a doubt, once the students start competing, their passion for FBLA increases substantially.
TBL / When and why did you decide to sponsor a CTSO? Smith / Officially, I became a CTSO adviser in 2013. Being a part of a CTSO allows students the opportunity not only to learn leadership skills, but also to compete in a wide array of competitions. My position as adviser is the gateway that allows students into a CTSO. Like most teachers, helping students achieve their goals is a high priority. TBL / Why did you choose FBLA over other CTSOs? Smith / I chose to align Pinnacle with FBLA because of FBLA’s energy. When I attended FBLA events, I was immediately impressed with how much those in charge made exciting the student participants a priority. Yes, FBLA--like other CTSOs--has a strong curriculum, which is important. But not all CTSOs excel at electrifying and engaging students at the same high level as FBLA.
TBL / How did your Graphic Design class prepare your FBLA members for competition? Smith / The Graphic Design courses offered at Pinnacle High School are Career & Technical Education Courses. So, the students learn “employability skills” that flow directly into the Future Business Leaders of America curriculum. As a result, the student competitors are able to effectively present the fruits of their labors to the judges.
place in e-Business and also placed first and second in Website design at regionals? members for competition? Smith / When my students performed well at regionals, I was overjoyed for the kids, but I wasn’t overly surprised. I was a bit concerned that our strongest competition was a specific technology-based charter school, but the students had worked extremely hard on their respective projects so I was hopeful that their design skills would be recognized by the judges. TBL / This is your first year going to state, what are your expectations for your students and how do you think they will do competing against the other schools? Smith / Yes, it is our first year competing at the State Leadership Conference, and I have little idea what to expect. That said, I believe in the students and, at the end of the day, good design is good design. Therefore, I can say that I am cautiously optimistic that some of the students will at least make it onto the rostrum in the categories in which they are competing.
TBL / What was your reaction when your, relatively new chapter, won first
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LEADER ISSUE 1 | SPRING 2018
Magazine designed and created by Pinnacle High School Graphic Design 7-8 Students:
Carsen Jones & Hailey Nabity