Last Sunday, I got to do one of my favorite things. I spent the day meeting small groups of students from high schools across Montana, and judging videos that they made.

The videos were 3-5 minutes long, and they were made by students in BPA—Business Professionals of America, an organization that prepares high school students for the business world.

Each year, BPA students from all over the state gather in one place (Billings this year) to compete in many business-related events. Video is one of the events. The videos always have a specific theme; this year it was the dangers of texting while driving.

The students came up with many different ways to present this message: some sad, some a bit shocking, and some very funny. Many of them created text-while-driving crash sequences—a daunting challenge even for professionals.

This is the 4th year I’ve judged, and every year there are certain mistakes I know I’ll see. It’s very common for high school students not to be aware of the conventions of video, such as lighting, shot composition and editing.

However, these small negatives are completely overwhelmed by the gems—the moments of inspiration and greatness within the videos that every year make me say things like:

“Wow!” and “That worked beautifully,” and “I never, ever would have thought of doing it that way.”

Video offers infinite possibilities when it comes to delivering a message. It’s wonderful and inspiring to see the many creative and effective ideas of these young, soon-to-be professionals. Well done, BPA students!