NORFOLK – On February 11, the Northeast Community College Future Business Leaders of America Collegiate Chapter hosted a young professional’s panel that featured area entrepreneurs, business owners and creatives in the lower level of Union 73.
Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) is a career-technical organization that aims that providing students with professional business experience to aid them with post-secondary life.
Northeast FBLA-C Advisor and business instructor, Angie Shaffer, spoke of the benefits of FBLA-C at the college.
“It (FBLA-C) is a business organization, but I like to think of it as more of a leadership organization and students can be in any major and get anything out of it,” Shaffer detailed.
“FBLA is really about helping students from being in college and then transitioning into the real world and the job market that comes with it,” Shaffer continued, “FBLA is one of the most active student organizations at the college; we host events like the panel, a lot of community service including the Spooktacular (a Halloween community trick or treating event hosted at the college).”
The young professional panel featured a list of Northeast alumni and past FBLA-C members.
These panelists included: Hunter Bergman the Founder of XPM Marketing, Daci Luttrell the creator of Muralist Dace, Austin Bruzek a Financial Representative at Mutual of Omaha, Isaac Saldana a realtor at Berkshire Hathaway and Tanner Lancaster who owns and operates a State Farm Agency Branch.
At the panel, professionals were asked how they started their careers, how they overcame challenges and gave advice on what students can start doing now to advance their careers before they officially start.
Students had the opportunity to ask questions, and a brief networking session was hosted after so students could talk individually with a variety of the presenters.
Angie Shaffer also detailed the goal of hosting the panel for students at Northeast.
“I wanted to bring students and give them the opportunity to ask questions and hear from people who have started successful careers,” Shaffer said, “students learned a variety of advice on work-life balance and how to take meaningful risks.”
One of the students, Manaseh Kingwell Liphuk, who attended the panel took to Facebook to share his thoughts regarding his positive experience.
“As a business administration student, I had a great time learning from different youths who were students and now they are doing great things in their entrepreneurial journey,” Liphuk mentioned in his Facebook post on February 20.
Northeast FBLA-C has another panel planned to feature more senior executives who are further into their careers.
The executive professional panel’s official date has not been released.
