Business Professionals of America honor ISU professor

Business Professionals of America honored Idaho State University associate lecturer Brenda Jacobsen with the 2007 Outstanding Service Award during the national leadership conference in New York City in May.

BPA is a national organization, which offers middle school, high school and college students the chance to hone their skills in business and information technology.

“Brenda has an unwavering commitment to students at all levels,” said her nominator. “Brenda has implemented innovative, creative and ground-breaking programs on a local, state and national level to guide students to be successful.”

A crowd of 6,500 people attended the special honors advisor reception, co-hosted by ISU senior and National Post-Secondary BPA President Dan Armstrong, where Jacobsen was honored.

Jacobsen fills many positions for BPA. She is the College of Education’s co-advisor, the state post-secondary officer coordinator for the Idaho Association of BPA, a board member for the national board of trustees and the national internship coordinator for the national leadership conference.

Jacobsen works with state advisors and directors from across the country to promote business and marketing education in secondary and post-secondary school settings.  She has been teaching at ISU since 2000. Her current job with the College of Education includes working with business-education majors and teaching foundation courses for all teacher-education candidates.  

Jacobsen was recently invited to sit on Idaho’s Professional Technical Education Curriculum Committee. Microsoft Corp. also has asked her to attend training on the new 2007 software release in Redmond, Wash.

“It is the students who deserve the credit,” Jacobsen said. “This is a reflection of what they do every day. I show them the path, and they create their own success.”