Three SAU PBL students recently won national awards at the National Leadership Conference, including Deana Hughes, starting second from left, Jason Rakes, and Andrew Sawyer. SAU representative pictured at the conference are Dr. Gerald Plumlee, from left, Hughes, Rakes, Sawyer, Austin Evans and Austin Taylor.
Three Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) chapter members from Southern Arkansas University recently won national awards at the 2014 National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Nashville, Tenn.
The winners from SAU included Andrew Sawyer, a junior accounting major, who won tenth place in the Macroeconomics event; Jason Rakes, a May 2014 graduate in Management who won ninth place in the Entrepreneurship Concepts event; and Deana Hughes, a May 2014 graduate in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, who won second place in the Local Chapter Annual Business Report and received national recognition for Who’s Who in PBL.
In total, five SAU PBL chapter members attended the conference, including the following: Hughes, of Arkadelphia; Sawyer, of Paris, Texas; Rakes, of Rogers; Austin Taylor, of Little Rock; and Austin Evans, of Foreman. They participated in numerous leadership workshops, national competitive events and national officer elections. SAU PBL chapter advisers Dr. Gerald Plumlee and Traci Hughes also attended the four-day conference.
The conference offers PBL members the opportunity to compete in 50 different events representing the focus of FBLA-PBL on business and leadership development. The winners of these highly competitive and prestigious awards are selected from among FBLA-PBL’s membership of more than 250,000 students and advisers and represent some of the best and brightest students from across the nation.
Traci Hughes was recognized for serving her second year of a three-year term on the FBLA-PBL National Awards Program (NAP) Committee. The NAP committee oversees all competitive events for FBLA and PBL.
Future Business Leaders of America – Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. (FBLA-PBL) is the national business education association that prepares students for their future careers. Its members, belonging to more than 6,000 chartered chapters, include students from the United States, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Europe. Phi Beta Lambda is the post-secondary division of Future Business Leaders of America. PBL members rely on corporate sponsorship, donations, and fundraisers to cover the expense of attending the National Leadership Conference. Membership is open to all interested students.
For more information about the SAU College of Business or PBL, visit www.SAUmag.edu/Business or call the SAU PBL chapter at (870) 235-4300.
