Front Row: (L to R) Caleb Barzee, Emily Bennett, Aspyn Powell, Daniel Morrin
Back Row: (L to R) Blake Rawlings, Makenzy Wasden, Ella Sampson, Shayla Lords, Kaden Cook

Courtesy of Daniel Morrin

By: Hailey Berry

BPA stands for Business Professionals of America, which is a club of high school students that participate in competitions held in Boise and the surrounding area. Students that are members of BPA compete in over 115 events including Graphic Design, Global Marketing, and Interview Skills.

High school students get to choose a business event. Every year, City of Commerce offers talented students a scholarship for $500. Jason Perkins was the only student to win that award last year.

There are many events, both team and individual, that can help students prepare to specialize in a business career.  Their main goal to accomplish every year is to prepare students for college and future jobs.

“The event I chose to go into in BPA will help with my future jobs. No matter what I want to be [when I grow up], [I will be] a better public speaker and be able to communicate well with people,” said Junior Emily Bennett.

Jennifer Barzee, a teacher at Madison High, has been a BPA advisor for the last 2 years. She was inspired to become an advisor when she was in high school, and she had a teacher who encouraged her to compete in FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America).

Future Business Legends?

By: Megan Gehmlich

The stakes are high when it comes to Business Professionals of America (BPA) competitions and the pressure is on as club members at Madison compete in a variety of categories. BPA is a club meant to enhance and develop students’ interview and speech skills. In fact, many club members are preparing for a prestigious competition in Boston this year.

“The first competition we have is regionals, which we just recently had. Then the qualifying students move on to State competition, which is in three weeks and in Boise.” said club advisor Mr. Klassen.

Many club members are using “Torch Awards” to help them capitalize their exciting BPA opportunities.

“Nationals is being held in Boston. Some students, if they have enough Torch Award points, can make it to Boston without qualifying! Most of our students in the club are planning on doing that,” said Mr. Klassen.

Torch Award Points are points students can earn from doing service for people in their community.

“In order to make it to Boston with just Torch Awards, you need to  have made it to the State competition. Torch Awards can be simple, you can sometimes earn five points just for smiling at someone,” said club president Shayla Lords.

Competitions in BPA are very similar to that of speech and debate tournament, but unlike speech and debate, they are very specialized in aspects of business and entrepreneurship. Each competition and judging is different depending on the category the student chooses to compete in.

“There are about 115 events that you can chose to compete in, some of the events  available are entrepreneurship, global marketing, interview skills and accounting. A lot of times it is a judged event.” said Mr. Klassen

Since there are so many possible events to compete in, many students chose to compete in specialized events together. BPA members Shayla Lords, Ella Sampson, Caleb Barzee, and Blake Rawlings are all in a website design team together.

“As a group we designed a website and we actually took first at regionals for the website we designed! I really hope that we can take our team onto nationals.” said Lords.

BPA teaches students a lot of important life lessons, it allows members to develop long lasting friendships, and assists them with planning for future careers in business.

“This club has allowed to be a better speaker in front of people, and taught me how to work hard. When I was creating something for graphic design, I came to stumbling blocks where I just wanted to stop. But everyone has helped me and encouraged me so much throughout this experience.” said Lords.