Seeley-Swan students stand out at State BPA Conference

BILLINGS, MONTANA – Seeley-Swan High School Business Professionals of America (BPA) Club competed at the State BPA Leadership Conference in Billings March 13 – 15. Five SSHS students joined 91 chapters and over 1,000 top competitors from across Montana. SSHS BPA Advisor Michele Holmes said she is very proud of all the students that attended as well as the team's fourth place finish in Global Marketing and Club President Tru Good's top 20 finish in National Promotional Photography.

This is the second year for the SSHS BPA Club. Junior Tru Good has been the president of the Club since its inception.

Good said she has learned how to create a marketing plan, resume and interact and communicate in a more professional way. As a Club, she feels they have learned how to create different projects, how to study and how to work together.

"Overall that experience has been really nice and I know that I'm going to use that later on in life," Good said.

This is the first year the Blackhawks have competed in person at state. Good along with Cora Stone, Hattie Batchelder, Conner Chadwick and Wesley Stevenson attended. In addition to competing in various events at State, the SSHS students worked as conference interns, attended leadership workshops, volunteered in a Montana Special Olympic walk and met many student leaders from around the state. The students wore professional business attire for the conference and delivered lunches to the judges across the campus as well as performed other intern duties as assigned.

"They were very diligent and represented us very well," Holmes said.

Good felt the Club went into the state competition with confidence. However, it was nerve wracking to be with a thousand other students and know they were competing against them. She said they learned how to be more independent being required to meet deadlines and be on time on their own merit. While the competition at state was very high, Good was excited to be there with a small school, a new chapter and be able to keep up with the larger AA schools, many of which brought 20 students. Holmes added this is the only time the different classes of schools compete on a level playing field at a state competition.

The first day of the conference was held on the Montana State University, Billings campus.

"I think that is always a plus when kids can get a hands-on, in person look at a campus," Holmes said.

With a thousand kids from all over the state, Holmes said it opened up possibilities for the students. At the conference, students got to vote for the statewide BPA representatives. They had the opportunity to read their resumes and see what volunteer activities and other organizations these students are involved in outside of school, meet the candidates and listen to their speeches.

"It opened my eyes. There are other schools doing all this. How can we do it better? How can we get more kids to participate?" Holmes said. "And look at what happens when you do and what you can achieve. It was very cool."

Being their first year participating in person, Holmes said they brought everything they thought they needed for the events. Part of the event for the team's Global Marketing Event was to set up all their technology in three minutes. One of the teams loaned them a portable cart to use that allowed them to set up everything ahead of their event. The SSHS Club loaned a computer to another team whose computer crashed.

"It was cool to see the camaraderie and spirit of it all," Holmes said. "They really encouraged each other no matter what school [they] were from."

Good, Stone and Batchelder created a global marketing plan for a hypothetical, upcoming business that would later expand into Germany for their Global Marketing Project. They learned how to create a menu, pricing strategies and human resource requirements. After placing first at the Regional Conference, they added in a COVID-19 plan to the human resource requirements and they also spoke more about their hypothetical expanse into Germany. While Good said the team hoped to be in the top two and go to Nationals, they still felt like they did well with the fourth place finish.

"I'm just super proud of them for putting in all that extra time and I think they should be proud of where they placed," Holmes said. "They got to see and hear from other students about other events that they are excited about doing it next year."

Good also competed in the Legal Office Procedures event and most of the students also took open tests. Holmes said it was neat watching the students help each other study for the anatomy test, even when they are in different grades. In addition to medical-related events, she said students could choose to participate in a speech event.

"We are a small school and we don't have [things like speech and debate] but if you wanted to try them out, BPA is a way that you could do that," Holmes said.

In addition to fundraising to attend state, the individual clubs were asked to fundraise to support the Montana Special Olympics. The SSHS BPA Club raised $136 by selling dots for $1 to fill the image of a Blackhawk on a poster. Their poster was hung with the rest of the Clubs at the State Conference. In total, the Montana BPA Clubs raised around $13,000.

"BPA is also about giving back," Holmes said.

Holmes is excited that all the students look forward to competing and want to do more events next year. The Club's goal next year is to return to the State Leadership Conference in Billings and make it to Nationals in Anaheim, California.

Good said she really appreciates the support from the community, whether it was during fundraising events or on their journey to state. She looks forward to helping the Club continue to grow next year.

"It has been an amazing experience and I can't wait until next year," Good said. "I want so many other kids to experience what I have and hopefully next year we will make it to nationals."