The Business Professionals of America (BPA) is a national organization with over 1,800 chapters. Sentinel High School is lucky to be the home of one of those chapters, and ours has just about 24 of the over 45,000 members nationwide. Every chapter has an officer team, which includes a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, historian, and a parliamentarian.

Every position that exists at the chapter level, exists at the state and national levels. Recently at the BPA State Leadership Conference (SLC) held in Billings, MT, Sentinel’s very own Alyssa Stephens was elected state president of the Montana State Officer Team.

The responsibilities of a state president are to “preside over organization completing all tasks necessary in developing a positive yearlong program”, as defined in the MONTANA ASSOCIATION Rules, Regulations, and Policies. 

Stephens has many other responsibilities. She serves as a member of the Classroom Educators Advisory Council representative interview committee, and evaluates Montana State Leadership Scholarship applications. She is also the winner of the scholarship at SLC.

Alyssa put a lot of time and effort into her campaign to become a state officer. She says that this includes over 20 pages of paperwork and getting a Torch Award. The BPA Torch Awards is a program that is designed to promote “professionalism and leadership in both career development and personal growth.” Members earn points in four categories: leadership activities, service activities, cooperation activities, knowledge activities, friendship activities, love/hope/faith activities, and citizenship activities. The awards are split up into four categories:

• The Executive Award is recognized at the local chapter level and requires 10 points in each category. 
• The diplomat award is recognized at the regional level and requires 30 points in each category. 
• The statesman award is recognized at the state level and requires 50 points in each category. 
• The ambassador award is recognized at the national level and requires 70 points in each category. 

Getting any one of these awards is prestigious in BPA and is considered a great honor. After getting a torch award, Stephens then had to create her brand. Her brand must include a catchy slogan, well designed posters, and business cards. After that SLC is in full swing and campaigning with everyone begins. Stephens says that this is a culmination of all the candidates’ hard work and dedication throughout the year.

Stephens has learned a lot about herself from her experience in BPA. She said that before she joined BPA she had close to no friends, then, when looking through the Sentinel activity listings, she found BPA. Joining a club gave her a purpose in school and she encourages everyone to get involved whenever they can.

A key part of BPA is competition. In Montana, competition is split up between three conferences. Those three conferences are The Regional Leadership Conference, The State Leadership Conference, and The National Leadership Conference. Montana has eight regions, and Missoula is a part of Region two. The Region two conference is held at the Missoula College every year. Every Missoula BPA member competed at this conference this year. Anybody that advances after the Regional Conference goes to the State Conference (SLC). Anybody that advances after the State Conference goes to The National Leadership Conference (NLC).

This year, NLC will be held in Orlando, Florida. NLC lasts five days, from May 7th-11th. This event is known as the “ultimate event for BPA student members”. There are many planned events for NLC, including an open and closing general session. During the closing general session is when most awards are given out for competitions.

According to Mrs. Blouin, the Sentinel BPA advisor, fourteen of our BPA members qualified for NLC. Of those students, 11 are choosing to attend the competition. Unlike in previous years, funding is not fully available for students to go to the national competition. Members are still welcome to attend the competition, but a fee is owed to the club for airline tickets, hotel rooms, etc. In their downtime between competitions, these students are going to be doing many activities: visiting theme parks, attending workshops, eating local food, and exploring the city.

There are many ways that Sentinel’s BPA success can be measured. This year, the Sentinel BPA got a new advisor, Mrs. Blouin. The students of the BPA were able to work with this new advisor and student numbers stayed relatively the same. This year, Mrs. Blouin had a lot of fun getting to know her new students and plans to continue advising next year.