BUSINESS PUPILS GO FOR GOLD : MOORPARK STUDENTS HAVE WINNING TRADITION.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Five large banners featuring the green and gold of Moorpark High School hang in the gym, marking a tradition rivaling any athletic triumph.

The school's Future Business Leaders of America chapter will be going for a sixth consecutive Gold Coast Section championship when teams from high schools in Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties meet in six weeks. Top finishers in some two-dozen competitive categories - ranging from accounting and business law to impromptu speaking and desk-top publishing - will earn berths in the California finals.

Team leaders Brian Fields and Kevin Chou hope to carry on a tradition that has seen Moorpark send as many as seven individual winners to the national finals, which will be held in Anaheim in July.

``A lot of people go, aw, it's just a bunch of business nerds,'' Fields said of the grudging respect students give the future business leaders.

``Actually, it's very competitive. I really like the competition,'' said Fields, chapter president.

Chou will be leading the chapter's entrepreneurship team, where both knowledge and verbal skills are at a premium. The junior also will compete in economics, which he won at last year's sectionals.

Yet Chou's toughest task is vying for the title of Mr. FBLA. He needs a stellar resume, a sharp essay, strong academic credentials and a string of extracurricular activities.

``There's always some new challenge every year,'' Chou said.

``You also learn a lot about leadership. I've learned how to organize things better, get people involved in things, get people motivated,'' he explained.

Such determination to succeed doesn't detract from the fun that comes with hanging out and working with other teen-agers sharing similar goals, said Joyce Keefer, the faculty adviser who established the chapter in 1982.

The chapter has become so popular that there aren't enough areas of competition to accommodate all chapter members. Keefer said maybe a dozen or more of the 60 active members will be on the sidelines for the sectionals at Hart High School, in Newhall.

``Many times I have so many kids that want to compete that I have to limit them to one area, so they choose their favorites,'' she noted. ``These are kids are really self-motivated and they're real leaders.''

That competitive environment, though, breeds a level of success that would make a corporate chief executive officer smile.

The walls of Keefer's business education classroom are covered with certificates for both individual and team titles. The perpetual plaque passed each year to the sectional winner hasn't left Moorpark since it arrived in 1992.

Despite such steady success and annual recognition by the Moorpark Unified School District board and Moorpark City Council, Keefer is especially proud of getting the five banners hung in the gym.

``Academics don't get near the recognition the sports get, and that's unfortunate,'' she said.

FBLA, founded in 1942, has helped tap the talents of students in classrooms and communities across the nation.

The other active Ventura County chapters are at Buena, Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Channel Islands high schools, Keefer said.

Meeting weekly to study and test, Moorpark chapter members are serious about the work beyond their regular academic rigors.

``We let them test beforehand so we can get the best people and we put the others in events we think they will do best in,'' Fields explained. ``It takes a lot of hard work and dedication and studying to win.''

One tangible benefit for many is discovering potential professional fields they can explore in college.

``I know a lot of people that really base their majors on what they have done in FBLA,'' Fields said. ``You're never too prepared for the college and business world.''

Fields, a junior who hopes to attend UCLA, is aiming for a career in either broadcast or print journalism. To that end, he edits and publishes the Gold Coast Section newsletter.

Chou, a junior targeting the University of California at Berkeley, wants to explore economics. So he is getting experience as the Gold Coast Section treasurer.

``FBLA grooms them for the future,'' Keefer said.

``They go into all kinds of fields,'' she noted. ``My last senior group, many of them want to go into medicine. I had a senior a few years ago who wants to go into politics.''

Community work helps broaden the experience of FBLA members beyond the classroom and competition.

Several years ago, the chapter helped create a commercial map of Moorpark with cartoons highlighting services, businesses and points of interest. Then the students - dressed in suits and toting personalized business cards - sold advertising, with the chapter receiving as much as 30 percent of the revenue.

Last year, chapter members were paid by the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce to do polling for the November general election.

Keefer said such professional mentoring is valuable to the teen-agers. ``We can always use more. It's just support that we need, and the advice helps.''

Fields recently mailed a letter to the chamber membership seeking more professional mentors in hopes of adding to the 10 now working with the chapter.

``Mentoring is getting us involved at an early age, so that we know what's going on,'' he said. ``We are the future.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: (color in SIMI edition only) Students from the Future Business Leaders at Moorpark High School carry on winning tradition.

Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News