West High junior earns national business association acclaim

IOWA CITY ― Iowa City West High School junior Layan Ahmed’s many successes and eventual election to the Business Professionals of America’s national executive council almost did not happen.

Emily Hudachek, a business teacher at West High and an adviser for the school’s Business Professionals of America chapter, had just finished up that year’s registration for the organization. However, fellow teacher and adviser Diane Fickel stepped into her room to tell her they needed to make an exception to the registration deadline.

Fickle asked Hudachek to come to her class and see one a students give a presentation for a project the class was working on at the time. That student was Ahmed — a freshman at the time, who impressed the school’s advisers with her maturity.

“I said, ‘Oh, you're a sophomore, right?’ Nope, a freshman,” Hudachek said. “So I was just blown away, and I could see why Diane was advocating so passionately that she needed to join the BPA.”

After joining Wests chapter of the organization her first year of high school, Ahmed climbed the ranks to serve on the executive board for her school’s chapter. West High’s chapter is made up of anywhere from 50 to 100 students and has as an executive board of about four to 10 members, Fickel said.

This year, Ahmed became a state officer for the Iowa Business Professionals of America. Now, Ahmed holds the top seat on the organization’s national level as its national executive council president.

The association is a national career technical student organization that helps teach its members business and entrepreneurship skills as well as human resource, technology and design skills, according to its website. The organization has nearly 2,000 chapters across 25 states with about 45,000 total members.

Ahmed was elected to her new position May 13 at a national conference in Chicago. She will hold this position for the next year.

Ahmed was elected on the same day that she was competing in two different events, which seemed overwhelming at first, she said, but everything ended up going well.

“It was a very busy day, I do remember that,” Ahmed said. “But honestly, it was so much fun being able to share my passion to people and just do what I'm good at.”

Ahmed said she makes up a group of six executive council members, and the team has been working to plan its goals for the next year. As president, Ahmed said she plans to advocate for more representation and empowerment of the members.

‘She’s a dreamer and a driver’

Even before Ahmed joined her school’s chapter, Fickel said she could tell Ahmed could go on to achieve great things.

“She took a class from me, and that was when I first identified that she had something special,” Fickel said. “And as a veteran teacher, you can identify those special kids right from the get-go.”

Fickel said that everyone who meets Ahmed is left with the same impression: “This girl turns things to gold.”

When Ahmed sets out to completed a goal, she works hard to make it happen. “I think there's two things that describe Layan: She's a dreamer and a driver,” Fickel said.

Solid foundations

Surrounding Ahmed at West High’s chapter are many other amazing students that make the chapter strong, Fickel said.

Each year, West High’s chapter participates in the state conference, which takes place in February, to showcase projects they have been working on. The types of projects are diverse and can range from taking a test on finance and accounting knowledge to giving a presentation in front of a group of judges, Ahmed said. Any qualifying projects then go on to compete at the national conference, which typically takes place in May.

Other than competitions, West High’s chapter does many philanthropic activities, such as making blankets to be donated, Ahmed said.

“We just overall like to emphasize a lot of inclusivity and making people feel like they belong and making BPA a fun space beyond the competitive events,” Ahmed said.

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