As the business department has many events going on around school, the students have taken the lead with anti-tobacco campaigns, business competitions and programming events. Students ran anti-tobacco and anti-drunken driving campaigns in the cafeteria during lunch last week.

Several students in business teacher Lesley Martin’s Computer Science and Software engineering class have applied for the National Computing Women in Technology Award. FBLA begins competing in January and the students are preparing business-related presentations, as well as listening to guest speakers.

Martin said that the idea behind these events is to give students a way to apply what they’ve learned in classes and guest lectures.

“Giving the kids a real-world, well-established chance to demonstrate their skills is our main goal in hosting the events,” said Martin. “I bring in an accountant to come speak to the classes, and I am trying to bring in a programmer.”

DECA sponsor Kelly Rule brought in a guest speaker to give her class a lecture on Dec. 14. While the teachers find ways for students to learn and demonstrate their knowledge, students in DECA and FBLA lead projects and presentations in order to demonstrate their understanding.

Senior Molly Havens, who plans to go into accounting or the business field, said that students benefit from these events because it helps when applying to colleges that specialize in business.

“It looks good on an application to be a part of DECA and FBLA because they know you have taken initiative to be a part of that field,” said Havens. “And you can get scholarships for it.”

Havens also said that the anti-smoking campaign was important to her personally because she said it doesn’t make sense that people still smoke after seeing the affects that smoking had on the lungs.

“It gets to me that young people are smoking because of what it does to their bodies,” said Havens.

The campaigns at lunch are sponsored by Tri-County Mental Health, according to Havens. They have a specific focus each year, and this year’s focus was the anti-smoking campaign.

The competitions that students participate in help students gain not only real-world experience, but also enable students to gain sponsorships and scholarships for their work.

“I had three kids go to the Hack-a-Thon in Liberty, and they took first in community impact,” said Martin. “We’re looking toward sponsorship for the app. They’re going to have a panel judge it and then go from there.”

Martin said that three of her students are competing for the National Computing Women in Technology award, which serves to recognize women in the technology field who work hard to stand out in a predominately male field.

The students also participate in events that help middle school students gain knowledge in the fields of business and engineering. Junior Miranda Putri took place in the Hour of Code, which she said was intended to let the middle school girls try coding by themselves.