Business club tries to resurface on campus

Students are trying to breathe new life into a longstanding club at Utah State University Eastern.

The club is Phi Beta Lambda, which in Greek means the letters FBL, which stands for Future Business
Leaders. It is looking for new members.

FBL goes back a ways in Price. It was originally organized in the 1970’s on the College of Eastern Utah
campus. One of the first advisors of the club was Dr. Henning Olsen, who is still the advisor to this day.
He has been here for almost 50 years and has seen and done a lot. He is very experienced in business
and accounting and has had many PBL students rank nationally over the years.

Before 2010 and before Utah State acquired College of Eastern Utah, Phi Beta Lambda was going strong
with upwards of 30 members at one point. PBL went to many state competitions and even nationals and
placed well. An Eagle newspaper article from April 30, 1998, said that CEU students placed in the top
10 for the 20th consecutive year.

Olsen said that CEU was acclaimed year after year for the students it sent to the competitions. It also
said that CEU had one of the best business departments in the state. Students like Rada Roger and
Carolyn Hansen placed in top 10 in accounting and Melissa Prince placed in marketing with first in state
and going onto nationals. This was all in 1998.

The current club recently went to Autozone in Price to talk to former member Danielle Warner. She said
they had about 20 students in 2010. Since then, under USU, the club lost momentum and, at time,
hasn’t existed.

Warner was an accounting major here at USU Eastern from 2010-13 where she also participated in PBL.
She competed in business presentations, business management, marketing presentations, small
business management and sales. She went to nationals three years, with the first year being in Anaheim,
California where she took seventh in business presentations.

Her second year, she took second in small business management in Nashville, Tennessee. Lastly, her
third year, she took sixth in marketing presentations and ninth in small business management in San
Antonio, Texas.

“It was a great opportunity to learn leadership skills and networking and seeing different things that
worked well with people and seeing how to motivate them,” Warner said.