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It’s 12 a.m. in the morning, and junior Vice President of Communications and Torch Awards Stacey Lim is in a deep trance of sleep, when she is quickly jolted awake by her conscience. She reaches the epiphany that she forgot to send out a canvas announcement containing vital deadline information for Business Professionals of America (BPA). The next day at school, her fellow BPA members ask her why she sent out a canvas announcement at 12am. Immediately, her intellect tells her that if she isn’t constantly on top of her leadership position, it could be disastrous.
Lim, a BPA officer, often endures hardship and stress due to the stakes in her leadership position. However, she has claimed that she loves her position in the BPA program and would never consider removing herself from it.
“Our BPA chapter is humongous. Heritage is the best BPA chapter in the district,” Lim said. “Since there’s so many people, you make one small mistake and 400 people are screwed. BPA is also controlled on a national and state level. So if you miss a deadline, that’s bigger than us. We can’t just go back and fix it. So if I don’t communicate deadlines, it’s catastrophic.”
Since Lim is committed to performing at the highest academic standard, she oftentimes is forced to balance school work and HHS cheer co-captain responsibilities on top of her BPA duties. Nevertheless, she has affirmed that she is devoted to BPA due to the fact that so many people are as well, not to mention the amount of eyes focused on her.
“Sometimes I get so caught up in school and I realize that I forgot to send out a canvas announcement,” Lim said. “People always joke about how I send out canvas announcements at 12am. I do it because I know that a lot of people care about BPA because it’s a chance for you to get statewide and nationally acclaimed awards. So if I mess that up, I would feel awful, and so would they. Another thing is that you have everyone looking at you. I walk in the hallways and people ask me if I’m ‘The BPA person.’”
Because BPA is already a huge responsibility for Lim, it leaves little time for her other commitments. However, she has gained tremendous benefits and opportunities from being a part of the organization.
“I would say I think about BPA four times each week,” Lim said. “Sometimes I might have to miss some school on Fridays to go to Roach Middle School to represent BPA, which is a lot of added responsibility on top of everything else I’m responsible for. On the brighter side, I’m so much better of a public speaker now and I have so much more confidence. I would say a lot of my opportunities I have right now are because of what I’ve accomplished in BPA.”
BPA head advisor Ms. Farrell has her own ideas on what Lim brings to the table. She has deemed Lim to be a reason for the swift, diverse expansion of the program, along with the exceptional work Lim has done in her leadership role.
“Stacy has tried to be very inclusive and bring a lot of diversity into the organization,” Farrell said. “Just bringing in people that may not have considered BPA, which is partly why it’s expanded so much, and a lot of it is word of mouth. Stacy has done a great job with handling communications, which helps me because I don’t have time to remind everybody. She also handles a lot of the social media part of it, to just remind people to do all the things that I’ve told them to do.”
Farrell has found Lim’s determination to the program outstanding compared to those in her leadership position in the past. In addition, according to Farrell, Lim has made information distribution one of her top priorities.
“She brings a lot of energy, she doesn’t need the microphone when we have meetings,” Farrell said. “She also has a high level of commitment to making sure that everybody is aware of the opportunities that they have. She tries to get them to make sure that they’re following through and meeting all the deadlines so that they don’t miss out on those opportunities. We’ve had other people in the role of Vice President of Communications and Torch in the past that didn’t do as much as she’s doing. So, she’s really doing a great job at making sure that people have the information.”
Despite Farrell and her minimal interaction with Lim, she has trust in the idea that Lim has immense potential regarding her ambitions for senior year.
“I haven’t had Stacey in the class, so my interaction with her is from officer and BPA meetings, which is not an everyday basis kind of thing,” Farrell said. “But I know she wants to apply to be a state officer for BPA, and I can definitely see her succeeding. I’m very confident that she has a good shot of becoming a state officer next year.”
In other ways, junior BPA member Saketh Mallavaram developed his own outlook on how Lim guides the program, and is rather pleased with her leadership.
“I’ve been friends with Stacey since freshman year, so I’ve known her for a little bit,” Mallavaram said. “She’s a great person to have leading you as a BPA officer, especially as a vice president. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
In Mallavaram’s eyes, he sees a gleaming career in law yet to come for Lim.
“Stacy’s going into law, she’s very knowledgeable and passionate about that stuff,” Mallavaram said. “So I do see her going into law in the future and doing big things with it. I see a bright future ahead of her.”
Mallavaram is well aware of Lim’s lack of sleep due to her numerous extracurriculars, but never fails to stay on top of her workload.
“She doesn’t sleep a lot, but I think she’s relatively decent at time management,” Mallavaram said. “But other than that, she does a really good job of doing her work in class and doing it as soon as she gets home.”
In the end, Lim has professed to have had positive experiences in BPA and desires the same for the future generations of HHS students.
“One of the biggest reasons why I love BPA so much is because all my friends are in it and I have made so many good memories along the way,” Lim said. “We live in Frisco, it’s a very sheltered area, you don’t get to meet a lot of different types of people. But because of BPA, I’ve been able to. I often times express how stressed I am, but I really am so grateful for the roles of being a BPA officer and a co-captain for our school’s cheer team. I became an officer and a co-captain because I wanted everyone else to have just as good experiences as I did in the years past. These positions are all worthwhile because I know that I’m making an impact on younger people as well.”
