Mississippi Community College Board oversees future business leaders

It was awards day for Phi Beta Lambda students on Friday

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- There is an old saying; “the youth are the hope of our future”. The Mississippi Community College Board knows that and is doing its part to start those young people down a successful path.

It was awards day for Phi Beta Lambda students on Friday; that was the pay-off for three days of hard work and intense competition.

These budding entrepreneurs have been on Mississippi University for Women’s campus learning how to apply the knowledge and skills they’ve been picking up in school to a competitive business environment.

“I’ve always wanted to do like a video type of business any kind of video media business and this conference has really helped me do that and a way for me to put my name out there for other people to see,” said Zakary Roach.

The Mississippi Community College Board began overseeing the Phi Beta Lambda group in 2022 and organizers know that the conference at the W is only the beginning.

“This is the first year of us hosting the state leadership conference, state leadership conferences are generally held each year and after this conference then the students who won in the competitive events can advance to National Phi Beta Lambda conference each year,” said Mississippi College Board assistant director of organizations Kimberly Jones.

In a taste of real world competition, students have been putting in hard work to win the top spots in several categories. Jones said there was a process for the students to get their scores.

“We had students that submitted local annual business reports, community project plans and those events were scored to allow these students to compete in the different events,” said Jones.

The most important element was knowing that those students would take away some knowledge and skills that they may not have had before and can apply them to next year’s competition and their careers.

“It’s very important for them to get this type of experience, it gives them exposure to the different types of competitive components in real world job markets,” said Shamiko Allen.

The first place finishers in each category are eligible to go to the national Conference in Chicago.