April 17, 2009
BPS Student Profile- Carlos Torres
Business Professionals Of America; Profile on Carlos Torres
February 20, 2009
Jessie Junker
Being a state champion doesn’t necessarily mean making more goals, or scoring more baskets.
In Carlos Torres’ case, it meant explaining why being on social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace at work is unacceptable. And being as professional as he is, Torres didn’t update his Myspace status to ‘is a state champion’ until after the Business Professionals of America State Competition.
Torres, a senior at Bernalillo High School never considered human resources as a career until now. After competing and winning first place in the Human Resources Management category, Torres said he learned more about the corporate world and it gave him a different perspective on employment. However he is currently planning on majoring in Business Information Systems at New Mexico State University next fall.
Torres joined BPA in November. Initially he didn’t know what category he wanted to compete in. Laura Zamora, the BPA sponsor at Bernalillo High School asked him to think about extemporaneous speech, however he decided on Human Resources Management and Desktop Publishing. He knew he would try to the best of his ability, but didn’t know he would end up a state champion.
Before the competition, Zamora would give Torres practice tests on possible human resources’ situations. She would also give him advice to help him find a way to solve the problem. He was also given a human resources manual he could study by and to use as a reference during the competition.
Once the judges gave Torres his topic about social networking and personal emailing during work hours, he headed to the prep room to brainstorm and prepare his solution.
“I went in to prepare pretty confident, and once I had my solution ready I was starting to get a little nervous, but still confidant. When I went in front of the judges I became a little more nervous but I just did my best to keep my head straight,” said Torres.
Torres had to wait a little longer than he had hoped because the competition was running behind. Torres said he had trouble staying focused after his solution was ready because of the extra time. He did his best to keep his mind focused and clearly and concisely get his point across. He didn’t want to over or under think anything.
“I didn’t think I would get higher than third. When they called it and it wasn’t me I got very nervous. When they called second place and it wasn’t me again, I just figured I hadn’t won. I had already come to terms with the face that I had lost,” said Torres, “When they called first and said my name I was extremely excited. I really thought that I wasn’t going to win, so it was that much more amazing when I actually did.”
Overall Torres said the competition was a great learning experience.
“I learned a lot about both of the categories I competed in,” said Torres. “I became very efficient in Adobe Software. I also learned how to talk in front of judges in a professional manner and the different views of the business world, just like seeing different perspective of how certain instances are handled.”
Torres plans to compete at the National Competition May 5-10 in Dallas. He said he hopes to make sure his point comes across cleaner and keeps his attention on point while he is presenting to the judges.
