CONTRIBUTED BY OCS
OPELIKA —
Alabama student Alexandria Torbert from Opelika High School was one of nine national officers who were newly elected to serve on this year’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) National Officer team.
Alexandria, daughter of Keith and Marlene Torbert, was elected FBLA’s National Secretary for 2022-23.
FBLA is a premier student and career technical organization, dedicated to bringing business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs.
This organization strives to develop each student’s personal business leadership and focuses on strengthening their professional knowledge and confidence. Students expand their college and career readiness, financial literacy and business etiquette.
With 253,365 members, FBLA is the largest career student organization in the world, and it has international chapters in countries such as China.
This year’s national officer election at the FBLA National Leadership Conference in Chicago, Illinois, also included a highly specialized question and answer session, where every student candidate discussed their personal ideas and best practices to further the overall outreach of FBLA globally.
As the FBLA national secretary, Torbert recently accompanied a team of eight other national officers, to the FBLA national headquarters in Reston, Virginia, where they attended officer training to prepare and develop a Program of Work based on their organization’s strategic goals. Additionally, these officers are currently working toward developing future organization workshops, and several key initiatives on the local, state and national levels.
During this year, Torbert will assist in planning the content of FBLA’s upcoming Fall Leadership Conferences and 2023 National Leadership Conference in Atlanta.
“Words can’t begin to describe how grateful I am to the Lord for allowing me to serve a phenomenal organization as a national officer,” Torbert said. “FBLA has completely transformed, and helped me to grow, in unimaginable ways. Over the past three years, this organization has allowed me to create lifelong friendships, make unforgettable memories and expanded my knowledge tenfold through enabling me to delve deeper into the tactics and procedures of the business world. I consider FBLA and its astounding members as my forever family, because of all the love and support they have shown me throughout my journey.
“Being able to attain valuable knowledge and skills that I can use not only in the business world, but in whichever profession I desire, is just one of the numerous reasons why FBLA will always carry a special place in my heart.”
Each year, FBLA helps more than 230,000 student members prepare for careers in business. Its mission is to inspire and prepare students to become community-minded business leaders in a global society through relevant career preparation and leadership experiences.
Alabama’s FBLA students and organization also earned these top accolades during the recent Awards of Excellence event at the National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Chicago:
• Alabama had 12 students to place in the Top 10 national FBLA competitions.
• Alabama received special recognition for being named the Top March of Dimes Fundraising State, and for having some of the overall highest performing local chapters in the nation.
• Six of Alabama’s local advisers (teachers) were inducted to the National FBLA Adviser Wall of Fame this year.
For more information on FBLA, please contact ALSDE State FBLA Adviser Lisa Weeks at lweeks@alsde.edu.