BPA - A Club for Business Students

 

BPA Nationals in Florida

Ohio Northern University has nearly 200 student clubs and organizations. Currently, I am working on adding another one. At the beginning of my first year here at ONU, I wanted to start a Business Professionals of America (BPA) club. Part of the reason I decided to major in business and chose to attend ONU was that I was in BPA in high school. In the past few years, ONU has hosted the BPA Region 16 regional competition, which is the region my school was a part of. Every January, our club would take a bus ride to Ada and spend time in MAC all day while students competed in projects from graphic design to medical terminology. Some groups would even have to walk across the Tundra to Dicke, where their competition would be judged. The regional competition was always a positive experience. I remember spending time in the library, exploring campus and learning about all the notable things students were doing. I loved the MAC photo wall and the pool table.

Chicago

BPA provided many opportunities for me in high school. The club allowed me to apply to hold regional office positions and travel to places like Chicago and Florida. I have many funny memories from traveling with my classmates. Especially, while exploring downtown Chicago, seeing the Sears Tower and The Bean. We also had fun in Florida, playing games at night and swimming during the day. I promise, BPA was not just travel and fun. Throughout the year, the club worked hard to fundraise so that students would not have to pay more than a few dollars for any fun trips the club took or conferences it attended. The club also worked on its projects and held multiple service projects. The positive experience I had while in BPA motivated me to start a collegiate club here at ONU. I wanted to share the unique experience with other students and continue my journey with the organization.

Regional Officers

When I approached the assistant dean of the business college with my idea, I was extremely nervous.
After contacting the Ohio state advisor to ask if a collegiate club was a possibility, I created a document filled with information about BPA and what the club would potentially look like. The assistant dean loved my idea and helped me begin the journey of starting a club. After sending an email to generate interest, I had almost twenty people interested in BPA. Besides the fact that most of those interested were my friends, I was still ecstatic. From there, I scheduled a meeting to provide students with more information about BPA, had my friends help me write the bylaws and filled out the new club application on Northern Network.

Today, I had the privilege of presenting to the Student Senate about BPA so that they could approve it. Unfortunately, I will not know if the club is approved until their next General Meeting, since they did not have enough members present to hold a proper vote. But I am very hopeful it will be approved and excited to continue working on making a BPA club at ONU a reality.