| Waynesville graduate earns spot at FBLA college conference next month |
By: Blaine Falkena
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Posted: Friday, June 11, 2010 11:20 pm
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Tasha Lord of Waynesville earned a spot at the Future Business Leaders of America national conference next month.
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WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (June 11, 2010) — As a scholarship athlete, Tasha Lord is used to all-women’s basketball teams, and she’s used to winning.
But an all-women’s college? That was something new for the 2008 Waynesville High School graduate who has just completed a two-year program at Cottey College in the southwest Missouri town of Nevada, one of the state’s only women’s colleges.
Asked why she decided to attend a women-only college, Lord said “Basketball,” and explained that she went to Cottey College because she received an athletic scholarship.
Outside of basketball, Lord she “really didn’t know what to expect.”
“I really didn’t know much about it [Cottey College] before I got there. I knew it was a good school academically, but I really didn’t know what it was going to be like,” Lord said.
“I really can’t explain it,” she continued. “You have to experience it. Coming out of it, I had a really great experience.”
While she's a college athlete, academics don’t take second place for her: she’s earned a spot at the July 8 national conference of Phi Beta Lambda, the college-level division of Future Business Leaders of America, which will be held this year in Nashville, Tenn.
She earned that spot by winning first place at the State of Missouri Phi Beta Lambda Leadership Conference and Competition held at Jefferson City from March 26 to 27, defeating her competition in Economic Analysis and Decision Making. She also took second place in the Help Desk event.
The Economic Analysis and Decision making competition consisted of a 100-question proctored examination about the economy and economic theory taken prior to the conference; the Help Desk competition consisted of a test followed by a scenario put to the competitor by a three-judge panel. The competitors used their allotted time to formulate and deliver their response as well as answering any of the judges’ questions. According to information from the organization, Phi Beta Lambda is a 250,000-member educational association dedicated to developing competent, responsible, and aggressive business leaders.
FBLA is best-known locally for its middle school and high school clubs, but it has a total of four divisions ranging from middle school through professionals.
This fall, the 20-year-old from Waynesville will be continuing her education and pursuing an international business degree.
As part of her final year at Cottey College, Lord participated in an international trip to London, which was paid for by the college with the exception of the students’ personal spending.
“I think it’s really neat that the college pays for that.” Lord said.
During the trip, the students chose study modules which they then were required to write about. Lord chose the Canterbury Cathedral module that focused on the rise of Christianity in Britain as well as the architecture of London. As part of the module, she took a half-day bicycle trip that included riding around the Houses of Parliament and London Tower Bridge.
That was a different way to see the London landmarks, and Lord said driving on the left side of the road added a new dynamic.
“I almost got hit a couple of times,” she said.
Lord’s next step will be to decide where to continue her college education. She is considering a few schools that have offered her basketball scholarships; she is also interested in pursuing German languge training and possibly also Spanish in addition to her goal of a degree in international business degree.
For the summer however, she said she will be very busy with basketball workouts, summer courses at Ozarks Technical College in Waynesville, and interning with the Waynesville Vista internship program in addition to her trip to Nashville.
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