On August 25, 2022 I had the pleasure of visiting Emerson South High School. Emerson South is a non-traditional OKC Public School that offers their students an accelerated program centered around 9 weeks rotations, individualized learning plans, and flexible scheduling. Since their school year is so different,  participation within BPA is quite different for these students.

The class I spoke to had about ten people enrolled, these are Mr. Charles Butler’s returning BMITE students. Nine of the ten students did not know what BPA stood for, the one who did knew the acronym and that was it. Since the students knew so little about the program, my main goal was to get them excited about the program so that they would want to learn more as a chapter.

I asked around the room to see what career path the students wanted to follow, a majority of the class responded with careers in law, graphic design, and audiovisual production. I informed them that all of these careers fall within BPA’s expertises, and how they could participate in competitions within these categories. This got the class interested and excited for their future within BPA.

I then encouraged the chapter to come to the Fall Leadership Conference where they could participate in workshops, attend the general session, and hear from an amazing keynote speaker that would get them even more excited for the upcoming year. As I was leaving the school, I felt as though it was a successful visit, and many of the students will become active BPA members.