SANFORD - Central Carolina Community College's Phi Beta Lambda chapter ranked among the top 20 colleges competing in the National Leadership Conference held at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry Hotel.

Participants from across the United States and two countries competed in the June event sponsored by the national Future Business Leaders of America organization and Phi Beta Lambda, the largest and oldest student business organization in the nation. Twenty-two students representing a broad academic spectrum comprised the CCCC team. The team placed among the top 10 in six competitions out of 55 designed to test participants' core business skills. Lead Advisor Mike Fann attributes their success to a strong work ethic, intense cooperation, and an interesting diversity among PBL chapter members.

"The PBL National Leadership Conference recognizes excellence in a broad range of business and career-related events, yet only approximately 40 percent of our CCCC team are business majors," Fann said. "Our members major in everything from business to veterinary science, but it is this kind of diversity that makes them so competitive. The team displays a variety of skills and approaches to problem solving."

Out of 55 competitions conducted at the conference, the CCCC team placed eighth in Business Ethics, and Marketing Analysis and Strategic Analysis, ninth in Business Decision Making and Organizational Behavior, and 10th in Parliamentary Procedure.

"Our PBL team is focused, dependable, and hardworking," Fann said. "I am proud of their accomplishments at the national conference. I think people join this club because it is so diverse, but no matter what your field, you must have some kind of business background and PBL helps to provide that."

The CCCC PBL chapter is the fourth largest in the country and one of the most active clubs on the CCCC campus, Fann said.

"It is generally true of all community college students that they usually have to work and balance their studies with their job," he said. "They have to make a decision to participate in PBL because of time restraints, and they are committed to the goals and purpose of the club."

The CCCC PBL club organizes and conducts the annual Earth Day celebration; operates concessions for concerts and multiple sporting events throughout the state, including NASCAR, NBA basketball games and PGA golf tournaments; devotes hundreds of hours to community service, including working and fundraising for charitable organizations such as The Haven and the Central and Eastern NC Food Bank; and is invested in a student mentoring program through Junior Achievement in which club members actually go back into a classroom and teach students.

Taking honors in six of the National Leadership Conference competitions were:

• Catherine De Leon and Vickie Nguyen, 8th place, Business Ethics
• Quentin Ingram, Ivory Moore and Christopher Wilkes, 8th place, Marketing Analysis and Decision Making
• Vickie Nguyen and Katheryn Thomann, 9th place, Business Decision Making
• Ian Grice, 9th place, Organizational Behavior
• Ky'Hanna Dowdy, Teresa Estrada, Monica Sagastume-Ceron, and Genesis Santini, 10th place, Parliamentary Procedure

FBLA-PBL is the largest business career student organization in the world with over 250,000 members. Through state-based competition at the spring State Leadership Conference, top state winners are then eligible to compete for honors at the National Leadership Conference each summer. For more information about PBL and CCCC's Business Technologies program, contact Mike Fann at 919-718-7468 or e-mail him at mfann@cccc.edu.