BPA students win nationals

Wayne County has two more national champions and 14 more top 10 finishes from Business Professionals of America’s competition.

Lincoln, Centerville and Richmond students, advisers and parents traveled to BPA’s National Leadership Conference from May 7-11 in Orlando, Florida, with many bringing home medals or plaques.

To balance the pressures of competition and conference, and to expand their cultural horizons, some delegations enjoyed Florida’s weather and beaches and visited Disney World and/or Universal Studios.

Chapters organized fundraisers and sought donations from businesses and individuals to defray travel expenses.

Richmond

Denise Selm said it’s been an exciting year to advise RHS’ BPA chapter, which had two national champions: Owen Peters in Computer Modeling and Yuvraj Prajapati in Medical Coding.

Peters, a senior, called his participation in the organization “a truly life-changing experience.”

“Whether it’s practicing new skills, connecting with new people, or experiencing new places, the program has inspired growth for me and many others in so many ways,” said Peters, who also competed in Fundamentals of Web Design at nationals. “I’m very proud of our chapter’s hard work and success and the immense support from our advisors to make it all possible.”

RHS also received a Membership Explosion award for increasing to 47 members.

Of those 47 members, 21 qualified to compete at nationals. Thirteen were recognized on stage.

Additional Red Devil competitors included Greyson Farmer, Fundamental Desktop Publishing; Ashlee Grieswell, Health Administration Procedures; Carsyn Knight, Computer Security; Remy Luangsingotha, Java Programming; Fred Mendenhall, SQL Database Applications; Gavin Mitchell, Device Configuration and Troubleshooting; Ranbir Singh, Remy Luangsingotha, and Yuvraj Prajapati, Computer Animation Team; Josh Gilbert, Brayden Haller and Logan Priest, Podcast Production Team;

Hannah Stearley, Individual Presentation; and Emma French, Entrepreneurship.

Selm proudly notes that members also achieved numerous industry standard certifications in areas such as Information Technology Specialist in device configuration and management, network security, networking, HTML and CSS, Java and databases; Entrepreneurship and Small Business; Desktop Publishing; and Microsoft Office Specialist.

Selm thanked her fellow adviser, Angie Witham, and parents Trish Peters and Wendy Knight.

“I am really going to miss this amazing group of seniors,” Selm said.

Lincoln

Four individuals (Grace Briar, Karson Ulerick, Abby Myers and Gracie Gambill) and the parliamentary procedure team (Paige Robinson, Jacob Myers, Braydon Munchel, Leo Russell, Luke Cottrell, Ashby Jones and Lili Griffey) earned a top 10 finish for the Golden Eagles.

“BPA has pushed me in so many positive directions,” said Briar, a junior. “I learn something new every time I am at a BPA-led event.”

Beyond the sun, sand and amusement parks, Briar enjoyed going on stage for awards after scoring sixth in the nation in her event, Integrated Office Applications.

“I am thankful for all of the opportunities BPA has shown me,” Briar said.

Several adults helped provide those opportunities, including chapter advisers Garrett Singer and Ron Puckett, Katilyn Lacey, who operates and teaches the parliamentary procedure team, and chaperones Amy Puckett and Annabelle Keen.

“From Regional to State to National Leadership Conference, the students achieved many great successes this year and continued to grow as people and future professionals,” Singer said. “We are all proud of the time and efforts they have put into BPA and how they have represented Lincoln High School and the Western Wayne community.”

Additional LHS competitors and their subjects: Samantha Bell, Advanced Word Processing; Hannah Bogue, Fundamental Accounting; Chevelle Rose, Payroll Accounting and Advanced Desktop Publishing; Luke Cottrell, Advanced Word Processing; Owynn Osborne, Madi Cameron and Sophia Losekamp, Computer Animation Team; Josiah Berry, Ryne Sturgis, Daniel Bogue and Braxton Dick, Broadcast News Production Team; Cheyanne Junco, Fundamental Word Processing; Rebecca Harmer, Intermediate Word Processing and Advanced Spreadsheet Applications; Bear Ervin, Integrated Office Applications and Advanced Spreadsheet Applications; Tahlia Rastbichler, Advanced Office Systems and Procedures; Ben Bates, Fundamental Spreadsheet Applications; Sam Bogue, Database Applications; Evan Stuckey, SQL Database Fundamentals; Reilynn Ferguson, Medical Coding; and Madi Short, Open Events.

Centerville

The Bulldogs had four members who were finalists, and one member was a finalist in two events. 

The Administrative Support Team of Ellie Cox, Josie Daniel, Jocelynn Willett, and Ruby Snyder placed sixth.

Cox also placed eighth in Administrative Research Project. In addition, she served as a voting delegate for Indiana and was involved in selecting next year’s executive council. 

Additional Centerville competitors and their categories included Sophia Soper and Ruby Snyder, Intermediate Word Processing; Ruby Snyder, Advanced Word Processing; Jocelynn Willett, Integrated Office Applications; Claire Kaucher, Advanced Office Systems and Procedures; Andy Purcell, Legal Office Procedures; Julian Amyx, Computer Network Technology; Grayson Jarvis, Network Administration Using Cisco; Gavin Straszheim, Human Resource Management, and Management, Marketing and Human Resources Concepts; Makensy Isaacs, Health Insurance and Medical Billing; and Savannah Davis, Andy Purcell, Hudson Todd, Sophia Soper, Grayson Jarvis, Addie Talbot and Tasha Jordan, Parliamentary Procedure Team.

“We stayed in the beautiful Gaylord Palms hotel and the members had downtime so that they were able to enjoy the pool and water park located in the hotel,” Adviser Bonita Klein said. “They were also able to visit Disney World parks.”