President: Anthony Parascondola

Secretary: Lindsey Casella

Northern Region Vice President: KyungSun Lee

North-Central Vice President: David Li

Central Region Vice President: Michael Harrington

Southern Region Vice President: Melanee Santos

Membership Vice President: Vishva Mehta

Community Service Vice President: Chandler Bailey

Historian: Laura Sorice

Parlimentarian: Evan Murphy

Webmaster: Kulpreet Chilana

Welcome New Jersey Future Business Leaders of America!

My name is Anthony Parascondola and I am proud to serve as your

2010-2011 NJ FBLA State President. In these past few months, NJ

FBLA has proved to be “Simply the Best,” especially at the 2010 Na-

tional Leadership Conference. At the end of the membership year,

NJFBLA ranked 11th in the nation. Not only did we stand out for be-

ing a large state chapter, but we were recognized for placing in com-

petitive events, raising funds for the March of Dimes, and promoting

recruitment. This year, I am confident that our growing membership

will achieve great success as we begin Creating a Legacy!

When your State Officer Team arrived at Officer Training in August,

we each had goals for our Program of Work that would enhance communication throughout the

state, increase local chapter involvement, and many other objectives. To enhance communica-

tion, the NJ FBLA State Officer Team created a detailed layout of strengthening the exchange of

communication with local members and advisers. Any recent updates from the State or National

level will be emailed to all of our local advisers, blogged through our revamped website, as well

as posted on the NJ FBLA Facebook page.

Furthermore, we want to focus on improving local chapter involvement. New Jersey Future

Business Leaders of America is adopting a National Program called the “Passport of Progress.” It

focuses on FBLA activities that fall under four categories: Service, Education, Teamwork, and

Progress. Each activity has a certain amount of points, depending on its difficulty. Local chap-

ters with the most points will receive preferred seating at the 2011 SLC. These points also de-

termine where New Jersey FBLA sits at the 2011 NLC in Orlando, FL. To participate in this pro-

gram, local advisers need to start an online account on the National website. Emails will be sent

to advisers on how to start up an account and directions will be featured in a blog on the NJ

FBLA website. The NJ FBLA Program of Work is posted on the website under the Resources tab.

Success is a journey, and the NJ FBLA State Officer Team plans on working with all of our local

members and advisers throughout the year. We know that everyone’s dedication to the #1

business organization in the country allows us to work toward Creating a Legacy. If there are

any questions throughout the year, always feel free to contact any of the officers. Enjoy the

2010-2011 FBLA year and we look forward to hearing from all of you!

Best Regards,

Anthony Parascondola

NJ FBLA State President

By Lindsey Casella

Secretary

With a new year comes

a new set of responsibili-

ties, tasks, and goals to ac-

complish. As we head back

to school, we return to

books, classes, and, of

course, FBLA. Now is the

time to start planning kick-

off meetings and events.

From our two new state

committees to the Passport

of Progress, this will be

your best experience yet.

Being part of the number

one student business or-

ganization gives us access

to not only believe but to

achieve great things in our

competitive events and

through the Business

Achievement Awards

(BAA).

As a member, you have

the chance to make a dif-

ference. FBLA will help

you embrace the leadership

within and prepare for the

real world. Whether it be

enhancing your leadership

skills by running or hold-

ing an officer position, at-

tending a state or national

conference, or building

upon your knowledge

through workshops, the

possibilities are endless!

Together, we can “Build

a Better Tomorrow” by

getting involved within our

community. There are so

many different aspects of

service, from local projects

to our partnership with the

March of Dimes and our

ties with the Ronald

McDonald House. Get

your school involved and

be a part of the community

service project by contrib-

uting your community ser-

vice hours. Together we,

NJ FBLA, will “Break Bar-

riers”.

You tuned into success

in 2009-2010, now its time

to begin “Creating a Leg-

acy” in 2010-2011. Get

ready for a great year!

By Chandler Bailey

Community Service VP

FBLA has had the privilege of working with the March of Dimes for

many years, dedicating resources to raising awareness about premature babies.

I am happy to say that this year we are going to try to raise $50,000 before the

State Leadership Conference in March. All your local chapter needs to do is fill

out a form on the NJ FBLA website and send it in. Your donations will help

fill up the progress bar on the Community Service page of the website.

Furthermore, during my campaign I talked about helping out your community and how there are other ways of

giving back other than donating money. This year I have come up with a completely new program. Each month FBLA

members can do community service, and at the end of the month you send me a form about

what you have done. The sheet and requirements are posted on the website. At the end of

each month I will combine all the hours, and they will be posted on a progress bar on the

Community Service page of the NJ FBLA website. Our goal is 1000 hours by the end of

the school year! Be sure to check out my blog for further community service updates

throughout the year, including some new ways to go green.

THE FIVE FACES

The Five Faces show five dif-

ferent professions that directly

correspond to FBLA and spe-

cific competitions. Check out

your future career for tips on

what you should compete in

and what skills FBLA teaches

that can help you prepare for

your future!

Fellow members of the North Central Region, Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your North Central Region VP! As we begin another exciting year, I have goals I aim to see accomplished. A lack of active communication tends to a prevalent concern in large organizations like ours. I want to make myself as accessible as I can, so send me an email, find me on Facebook, become a fan of NJ FBLA, or follow my blog on the NJ FBLA website. We will continue holding re-gional conference calls and the regional breakfast, tenta-tively scheduled for the first week in December. FBLA shares a partnership with the March of Dimes. To unite our region in a community service event, I will be holding a March of Dimes “Fight for Preemies” Dodgeball Tournament in early March. In this region-wide event, exclusively for the North Cen-tral Region, teams from local chapters will face off to raise money for the March of Dimes. More details will follow, so stay updated! Once again, thank you for this opportunity. It is truly an honor and I am thrilled to get to know all of you as we Create a Legacy with NJ FBLA. Kind regards, David Li northcentral@njfbla.org

Dear Central Region, I am Michael Harrington, your trusty Central Region VP. I need all of you to do me a favor - intro-duce yourself to me. Go to Facebook and search “Michael Harrington.” Add me as a friend, and intro-duce yourself! We need to get to know each other. When you elected me your Vice President, I told you I wanted to unify the region. I cannot do that without your help. The first step towards unity is an introduc-tion. I am here for you: to answer your questions, share stories, and to help you make your FBLA experi-ence this year incredible. I’m always open to invitations to attend a local chapter meeting. In fact, I would love to be invited to your meetings, community service events, fundraisers, or just anything you would like to invite me to! Speaking of invitations, make sure you’re on the lookout for my updates about my Presidential Breakfast which will be held sometime after we head down to Washington DC for the NFLC. It will be held in the beautiful Flemington, NJ. Remember to keep checking my blog on the NJFBLA website for any and all updates! My kindest regards, Michael Harrington central@njfbla.org

Greetings Northern Region! I hope you are ready to kick off the new school year with even more determination and motivation than ever before. With all the opportunities, commu-nity service, and support that FBLA provides, it is easy to feel the difference we are making in helping each other build a better tomorrow. However, it takes more than a simple walk and a donation to achieve true suc-cess. We should all aspire to participate and help in all that FBLA does through our love and passion of our organization. This means that we should all strive not only to do the best we can in our competitions, but put our energy in sharing our time and talent on a state and national level. Furthermore, each member can make a difference by sending in your suggestions, questions, and comments to your State Officers on how to make your FBLA experience a memorable one. As we begin preparing for our upcoming conferences and events, please feel free to contact me with all your thoughts and ideas. I hope to see all of you soon and I wish you all the best of luck in the new school year! Best wishes, KyungSun Lee northern@njfbla.org

A MESSAGE FOR YOUR REGION

Dear Southern Region: Welcome to another year of FBLA! As your Southern Region Vice President, I am here to spread awareness of the organization and open your eyes to all of the wonderful opportunities FBLA has to of-fer. FBLA helps you gain valuable leadership skills, build self confidence, and become a responsible citi-zen. I will share my achievements as an FBLA mem-ber and work with our Southern Region chapters to create a legacy. As an active member of my local chapter, Cam-den County Technical School-Pennsauken Campus, I am currently assisting with membership, helping to coordinate our community service project for the March of Dimes, organizing the Southern Region President’s Breakfast, and preparing for this year’s competitive events. I will be hosting the Southern Re-gion Competitive Events at Mercer County College, and I hope to see all of you there! Participating in competitive events is an experience you definitely don’t want to pass up. Good luck for a successful year with FBLA. I look forward to working with you! Sincerely, Melanee Santos southern@njfbla.org

By: Vishva Mehta and Laura Sorice

Membership VP and Historian (respectively)

NJFBLA has instituted two new committees this year! The 2010-2011 Membership

and Publicity Committees consist of local members from throughout the state whoa re inter-

ested in taking an active role in our state chapter The Membership Committee will he

chaired by Vishva Mehta and the Publicity Committee will be chaired by Laura Sorice, the

Historian.

The Membership Committee focus on increasing membership and encouraging cur-

rent members to remain active. The Publicity Committee will concentrate on publicizing

and creating The Spotlight. We can’t wait to see what these two groups will contribute to

our state as we continue to “Break Barriers” together!

PUBLICITY COMMITTEE

Grace Chen

Swet Patel

Darshil Dharia

Tim Mansure

Kaitlin Chaung

Amanda Mancini

Truman Liu

Daniel Abraham

Eva Wu

Arjun Vijayakumar

Yash Petel

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

Darshil Dharia

Tim Mansure

Swet Patel

Ravi Trivedi

William Cheng

After reviewing several applications, we are

confident that the members of these two com-

mittees will accomplish great things this year!

-Laura Sorice; Vishva Metha: Committee Chairs

MEMBERS ENJOYED GORMET CUPCAKES FROM

“GIGI’S” “Everyone loved the cupcakes from Gigi’s. They were unlike anything I have ever tasted

before. -Sonali Choudhary—Piscataway HS

NJ WENT LINE DANC-ING AT THE WILD HORSE SALOON

“The wild horse was awe-some because the whole state of New Jersey had the chance to be together and have a night of fun!” -Amanda Mancini—Pompton Lakes HS

MEMBERS COMPE

TED AT THE

NASHVILLE CONV

ENTION

CENTER

"Nationals were grea

t this year! There

were good friends, g

ood competition,

and of course GREA

T country music!"

-Mark Woulgamouth

—High Point HS

This past summer, FBLA members from across the nation competed in Nashville Tennes-

see. Not only did NJ members prove to be “simply the best” at the awards ceremony,

they also enjoyed to life and culture of music city. Here’s what our members had to say!

ANTHONY PARAS

CONDOLA WAS

ELECTED AS ER VP

“I enjoyed the oppo

rtunity to be involve

d

with Anthony’s cam

paign for the Nation

al

Board. I can’t wait f

or this year!”

-Jennifer Velasquez—

Old Bridge HS

CLICK THIS

PICTURE TO

VIEW THE

NATIONALS

WINNERS

Sam: You were involved with FBLA at a local, state and national level. In what ways did FBLA impact

you?

Mr. Benowitz: FBLA-PBL provided me with the intrinsic tools necessary to lead. To this day, I al-

ways remind officers that they are members first - relating to my answer to question #1 and satisfaction

of customer needs. As an officer at the local, state and national level, I remembered those skills learned

as a member and what my fellow members and I truly wanted from our organization. Therefore, my

ability to truly lead was well nurtured through my involvement as a FBLA-PBL officer. A true leader is

one chosen by his/her peers to serve as their representative, it is an honor and a privilege, one that I

never took for granted. I worked hard to represent my fellow members and gained tremendous listening

and communication skills from these experiences.

To summarize my answer, the impact of FBLA-PBL for me was life-changing. I have and always will

be in debt to FBLA-PBL for providing me with opportunities to travel (attending conferences) and to

receive training in a multitude of areas that solidified the foundation of my classroom education. Fur-

thermore, my officer training helped me to achieve many of our FBLA-PBL goals—specifically, FBLA

-PBL made my transition from school to work smooth and successful. The knowledge I acquired, the

friends I made and the experiences I enjoyed would not have been possible without this organization.

Sunny: Was there anything in particular that drew you toward business?

Mr. Benowitz: As I always teach my students, anything and everything relates in some way, shape or

form to business. I guess I found that old saying to be true...if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. As a result,

my focus in teaching business is to remind my students that the number one reason that we are in busi-

ness is to “satisfy our customers’ needs” and in turn, we expect to make a profit. Therefore, our focus is

always on customer service/satisfaction - then, your customer will see the value of your good and/or

service and hopefully pay your asking price (keeping informed that your business must generate a profit

to stay in business).

Sunny: We are currently enduring a harsh economic period. What do you feel that today’s generation

can change in the economic landscape?

Mr. Benowitz: My thoughts and hope for today’s generation to realize quickly that success is not meas-

ured by money. We can replace almost any material item. People cannot be replaced. Therefore, I feel

that today’s generation should focus economic resources on saving lives through medical

IIIINNNNTTTTEEEERRRRVVVVIIIIEEEEWWWW WWWWIIIITTTTHHHH FFFFAt the conclusion of last year, two of the previous NJ FBLA state officers, Sam Bh

tional Officer, Mr. Frank Benowitz. Hopefully you will enjoy read

INTERVIEW WITH FRANK BENOWITZINTERVIEW WITH FRANK BENOWITZINTERVIEW WITH FRANK BENOWITZINTERVIEW WITH FRANK BENOWITZ At the conclusion of last year, two of the previous NJ FBLA state officers, Sam Bhakuni and Sunny Shah, sat down with the “Voice of NJFBLA” and previous Na-

tional Officer, Mr. Frank Benowitz. Hopefully you will enjoy reading about this interview just as much as they enjoyed hosting it!

research and advancements, saving our environment through energy saving technology and ending war

and famine throughout the world. After all, what the world spends on war/defense in a year could

probably feed every human being in the entire the world for a lifetime with plenty of change left over.

As an extra credit project in our Introduction to Business class, I will often have students write down

and submit the lyrics from John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’. Although these thoughts shared may be ide-

alistic, I truly think that today’s generation could make peace and humanity into economic success for

our entire world - imagine economic prosperity achieved by helping one another to have a better exis-

tence. That might not be easy, but it is worth a try.

Sam: What does leadership mean to you?

Mr. Benowitz: As said in my answer to the previous question, leadership means to be chosen by your

group to take charge. Additionally, it means that you must have followers - to lead without followers is

pointless. A leader has the ability to have followers want to do whatever it takes to accomplish a goal -

the key word is “want”. Today’s complex world is searching for leaders, thus, President Obama was

elected in the hope of much needed change. No one ever said or will ever say that taking on the role of

a leader is easy, President Obama is finding that out each and every day - if he loses followers, he will

lose his ability to lead. Sometimes, leadership requires reminding your followers why they chose you

and the first place and that you still need their support to accomplish the original tasks/goals set forth,

regardless of how difficult the road may be at times. Leadership, like the known adage about life, is a

journey; as such, it is important to have your followers stay on board for the ride and assist you as the

leader to reach your destination together.

Sunny: Who is your role model? Why?

Mr. Benowitz: There are many people that I admire from past history and current times. Our former

FBLA-PBL CEO, Dr. Edward Miller, is definitely among those that I admire as well as my parents and

grandparents. As strange as it may sound, the only role model that I could possible say I had growing

up as a young child was fictional - Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties. His love of economics and busi-

ness was inspirational to me. His nonchalant caring about others was something that I also found simi-

lar to my own. I am not one to wear emotions on my sleeve and am hesitant to answer such questions

that divulge anything personal about myself - especially that my one and only role model was a TV

character from my childhood. However, Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton also taught me to tell the

truth, and there you have it.

We are always looking for new writers to

contribute to The Spotlight! If you are

interested, please contact your State

Historian, Laura Sorice, at

historian@njfbla.org

By: Evan Murphy

Parliamentarian

Join NJ FBLA in Creating a Legacy This Fall!

Mark your calendar, because in a few weeks it will be time for New Jersey FBLA to

make itself known to the world as we all join in Creating a Legacy at this year’s State Fall

Leadership Conference! This action-packed one day event for local chapter officers through-

out our state will feature unforgettable workshops, a motivational keynote speaker, and of

course… delicious food! Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to meet hundreds of

other local chapter officers from around the state, as well as the state officer team.

Speaking from personal experience, there truly aren’t enough words to capture the ex-

citement of this conference. At my first SFLC, I made so many new friends and built relation-

ships with people that I still have to this day. I also learned so much from the workshops I at-

tended and was inspired by the keynote speaker. I highly recommend that all local chapter

officers make every effort to attend this great event!

This year’s workshop topics will include duties of officers, chapter management, transi-

tioning from FBLA to PBL, new national and state programs, and various aspects of busi-

ness. Members will be able to sharpen their leadership and business skills by participating in

this conference. To attend, local chapter officers should talk to their advisers. For all the latest

information on this year’s SFLC, including the date and location, remember to check our

state website, www.njfbla.org. Hope to see you at the conference!