St. Louise de Marillac School alum returns to speak about FBLA

While there was no chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) for Jack Sabo in middle school, he hopes to encourage the students who now have that chance to take the opportunity to join.
Sabo graduated from St. Louise de Marillac in Upper St. Clair in May 2019, and he returned recently to speak with students as the school sets up an FBLA chapter for its middle schoolers.
For Sabo, his experience with FBLA began when he got to Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh. Now a senior, Sabo was elected to be the president of FBLA Pennsylvania’s team of student officers.
“On one side you have an elected student body made up of nine students, elected by their peers every April. We have a pretty big say in a lot of the day-to-day operations. We work in tandem with the state management team – seven employees who work with us on a full-time basis,” Sabo said in a phone interview.
Something Sabo hopes he was able to impart on St. Louise students is how much he gained personally from FBLA, and how it brought him out of his shell.
Sabo graduated with 48 students at St. Louise, and then went into a class of about 240 at Central Catholic.
“I only knew 10 people, max,” Sabo said. “I really struggled the beginning of freshman year trying to find my place … I have a really strong passion for this club. It helped me make friends. It helped me become a better speaker and leader, skills that are transferrable outside of the classroom and outside of high school.”
With FBLA, Sabo said he has been able to travel the country and speak at conferences. The club helped him develop the “soft skills” that are helpful for someone in any profession, such as confidence and time management.
“Whatever you do, you need those soft skills to be able to communicate with people. It helped me to become someone who is confident and go up to someone I don’t know, shake their hand and say, ‘Hi, my name is Jack,'” Sabo said.
There are about 10,000 members of FBLA in 500 high schools and middle schools across Pennsylvania. Sabo hopes the students at St. Louise will be encouraged to join their ranks.
“You may not know what you want to do. I am no way saying I want to do this for the rest of my life. I think for me, regardless of what you want to do, FBLA has something for everyone, and it has something for seventh- and eighth-grade students,” Sabo said.