TORRINGTON – Torrington High School student Emily McGaugh has been a part of Future Business Leaders of America since her freshman year, and heading into her senior year, she’ll will take on a greater role within the origination.
During the 2019-20 school year, McGaugh has served as the state reporter for the FBLA, but on Wednesday, April 22, it was announced she had been voted in as Wyoming State FBLA President for the 2020-21 school year.
“I fell in love with the interaction of the members and communication throughout the state,” McGaugh said. “I found FBLA was a passion of mine, and I decided to run for state president.”
The FBLA has roughly 250,000 members nationwide which focus on leadership development, academic competitions and educational programs, with many benefits, community service, awards and recognitions.
“One of Wyoming’s FBLA goals is striving to be a premier CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization) and Wyoming is trying to get students college, career and military ready as soon as they leave high school,” McGaugh said.

It was not an easy application process filled with doing a resume, 150-word personal statement on why she deserved to be an officer and interview.
“It was a 12-page application process. I had to get permission from my school, advisor and my parents,” McGaugh said. “I completed the application process and an interview. After the State Leadership Conference was canceled, we had to move it online and the chapters had to vote via my recorded speech.”
When the vote was held and McGaugh found out via email from the Wyoming FBLA State Chairperson Barb Frates, she was “ecstatic.”
“It was a relief to know all the hard work that I had put in last year as the state reporter and all the hard work I put into my application and my campaign had paid off,” she said.
As the state’s reporter, McGaugh was charged with taking pictures at conferences, aiding in maintain social media accounts and helping compile The Business Buzz newsletter which came out in the Fall, Winter and Spring.
McGaugh will continue to help with the newsletter and social media accounts, but with the new title, comes new and greater responsibilities.
“I will now on the board and will be able to attend meetings, vote and have input. As the state reporter, I was not able to that,” she said. “I will be in charge of all social media and making sure all tasks get done that the office has been assigned to do.”
Through her time in FBLA and the process of being named president, she learned a lot about herself which see will carry on for the rest of her life.
“Becoming the FBLA president has proved that I can do anything I can set my mind to because it is a hard application process and a huge responsibility and commitment,” McGaugh said. “Committing to this is going to help me know that commitments that I make in the future I can go through with them no matter how hard they might be.”