EGHS FBLA Winter Newsletter 2019

Winter Newsletter 2019

By Owen Hirshorn, Chief Marketing Officer / February 6, 2019

Upon returning from winter vacation in early January, the East Greenwich Chapter of FBLA wasted no time getting back to work in preparation for the many business-related events and competitions that would follow in the coming months. Without a doubt, this winter has been a very busy one for the club. On top of preparing for State Leadership Conference scheduled to take place at the end of February, the chapter has participated in a number of other activities in both the FBLA and general business community.

On the financial front, Chief Strategy Officer Jack Gecawich was featured in a Rhode Island PBS segment on financial education that aired on December 28th. Jack also led a group of EGHS FBLA members in conducting a beta test of the STAX application. STAX is an up-and-coming computer game used to teach students about investing through the use of a teen-friendly interface.

On February 1, a handful of members of the chapter also took part in Job Shadow Day, sponsored by the General Treasurer’s Office. On this day, the students traveled to Ascensus, a company specializing in independent retirement and college savings services. One student on the trip, Chase Hirshorn, considered the visit to be “a great opportunity to see what life is really like in the workplace and to learn about the many different roles within a financial services company.”

In other news, former EGHS FBLA Treasurer Kip Hallagan spoke at RI General Treasurer Seth Magaziner’s press conference on January 7. Alongside Magaziner, Hallagan made his case for a required financial literacy course in the RI high school curriculums, stating, “It was eye-opening to see [college students] who could read Moby Dick in a weekend and solve the most complex quadratic equations stumble over predatory loans and other seemingly attractive bait-and-switch offers.”

Furthermore, to get to the 2019 FBLA State Leadership Conference and Business Plan Competition, members of the Sick-end and Climate Cuff business plan teams first had to make it past a shiver of sharks — including attorneys specializing in intellectual property and start-ups, venture capital and mezzanine investors, serial entrepreneurs, M&A analysts, fintech founders, and EGHS FBLA alumni currently enrolled in post-secondary entrepreneurship programs.

Members of the Sick-end team — Celia Adams, Morgan Prior, Meghan Jensen, Samantha Shorr, Lindsay Vican, and Julia Hallworth — took on the mission to create a community of users committed to building awareness of local diseases and decreasing the spread of illnesses through an app. Their next stop is the 2019 Global Economic Symposium on February 15, then onto the AdVenture Capital Innovation Challenge on March 5, followed by the Technovation entrepreneurial/technology competition in May.

Meanwhile, the Climate Cuff team of Jack Holmgren, Robby Ayers, and Cole Batista sought to optimize the temperature of beverages at any moment with their revolutionary technology.

Finally, those participating in the Global Economic Symposium on February 15 also went to Gilbert Stuart Middle School in Providence on Tuesday, January 23. Once there, they collaborated with the students on ideas for the Symposium, which is a showcase for solutions to world problems of local consequence. All in all, it was a very productive winter for the EGHS chapter of FBLA. Looking ahead, the FBLA State Leadership Conference is fast approaching, and EGHS is preparing to make a very strong showing.