A year ago, Emerson Dummar and Lauren Bevill spent most lunch periods at McCall-Donnelly High School plotting a trip this spring to Orlando. Next week, those dreams will come to fruition.
Emerson is among five students in the high school’s Business Professionals of America chapter who qualified to compete in the organization’s national competition in Orlando from May 7-11.
Led by Bevill, M-D’s business technology teacher, Dummar, Sean Reilly, Isaac Campbell, Jarom Campbell, and Anna Morgan are set compete against thousands of students from across the country.
Bevill is in her first year leading BPA, but began efforts to recruit new students to the club last year—starting with Dummar during daily lunches. Her efforts helped grow the program from five members last year to 19 this year.
“She kept on preaching to us…that we’re all going to Orlando because that’s where nationals are, and we’re all going to qualify,” said Dummar, a sophomore who competes in prepared speech. “Now me and Lauren are living out our Orlando dream from last May.”
What is BPA?
Business Professionals of America is a club in which students work individually to hone business skills ranging from coding and programming to public speaking and Microsoft Office. Then, those skills are tested in regional, state, and national competitions.
“It’s just a chance to compete in what I love,” said Isaac Campbell, a senior who competes in Java programming and C++ coding.
Each BPA member competes and practices individually in their chosen disciplines, but the program largely resembles traditional school sports.
“I’m not super athletically gifted, and at a small school like this, that’s what a lot of the attention goes to,” said Jarom Campbell, who is competing in personal finance and Java programming. “BPA is an opportunity to kind of show what I’m capable of and prove people wrong in a way.”
Competitions vary by discipline, but typically involve testing against other students for accuracy and being able to complete assigned tasks. The top 10 in each category will place at nationals.
Cultivating career skills
Ultimately, the skills honed through BPA prime students for careers in business administration, finance and accounting, information technology, video production, programming, human resources, web design, and small business entrepreneurship.
For Sean Reilly, the program’s real-world implications are easy to see. Riley competes in
“Device Configuration,” which involves setting up computer systems for use by individuals or even corporate networks.
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“Sean actually came in and hooked up a printer during class one day because I was on IT’s list to get it fixed,” Bevill said.
Anna Morgan, a sophomore, has had a similar experience with Microsoft Office skills she has developed in BPA. She helped Bevill setup a mail merge in Microsoft Word to send letters to a mailing list. Some local business owners have even asked for her help formatting spreadsheets.
Morgan found her way to Microsoft Office mastery almost by accident, but now sees the business skills she is learning through BPA as central to her future.
“I’ve always known I wanted an arts degree, but this has definitely opened up my mind to possibly double majoring in something business related, because I know it’s such a useful skill,” she said.
The program also teaches students softer skills that will serve them well no matter what career their future holds. Among them is how to be a self-starter, Jarom Campbell said, referencing fundraising to afford travel to competitions and continually practicing chosen disciplines without the structure of formal meeting times or classes.
“It requires a lot of self-motivation,” he said. “Between the five of us, there’s a whole lot of that in here.”
Resume builder
Several students have already seen their BPA affiliation pay dividends during interviews for jobs and colleges.
“I applied for a job in March, and the first thing that the person interviewing asked was ‘what’s BPA?’” Dummar said.
Jarom Campbell had a similar experience in the admissions process for the University of Chicago, which he is set to attend.
“BPA was just something I was able to talk about really easily,” he said.
For Bevill, serving as M-D’s BPA advisor has taken her back to her own high school career, during which she competed in similar technical skills programs, including Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.
“It was phenomenal for me and so I hoped that it was something that would carry through for them,” she said. “It’s been fun getting to be their advisor and see them grow. It makes my day. It’s one of the best things about my job.”
