Jacob Watson, a sophomore Management Information Systems major at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, recently placed eighth in the nation in the Computer Concepts competition at the Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. (FBLA-PBL) 2017 National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California.
Watson, of Annona, Texas, and Dr. Brian Matthews, assistant professor of management, attended the three-day conference, which promotes leadership, networking and skills development.
Dr. Richard Parsons, assistant professor of economics and finance, is the faculty adviser for the Eagles Business Club at A&M-Texarkana.
“We are extremely proud of Jacob for his outstanding accomplishments and how professionally he represented our Eagle Business Club and the Eagle family at the state and national leadership conferences,” Dr. Matthews said. “For his exemplary performance by placing first at the state level, then successfully competing and placing eighth overall at the national level, is beyond commendable. The poise, maturity and intellectual prowess he exhibited miles away from campus gives a distinct indication of the caliber of students that attend our university. We are looking forward to many more competitions and many more awards. The experience for Jacob was priceless and this is only the beginning of great things to come.”
Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. (FBLA-PBL) is the largest career student business organization in the world. Each year, FBLA-PBL helps over 230,000 members prepare for careers in business.
FBLA-PBL’s National Awards Program, commonly called competitive events, recognizes and rewards excellence in a broad range of business and career-related areas. Through state-based competition at the spring state leadership conferences, members compete in events that test their business knowledge and skills.
The Computer Concepts competition assessed the competitors’ knowledge of basic computer principles, ethics, hardware, networking systems and procedures, programming concepts, software concepts to include applications and operating systems, terminology and troubleshooting.
Watson placed first in the computer concepts competition at the FBLA-PBL 2017 Texas State Leadership Conference in Houston in April to advance to the national competition.
“Jacob’s well-deserved success represents just some of the things we are doing with the Eagle Business Club,” said Dr. Parsons. “The club is free to all A&M-Texarkana students. Last year we visited some local companies, went to a leadership conference in Dallas and had a networking dinner among other things. We plan more of the same for this year and invite interested students to join us.”
