Saints take on BPA state
February 28, 2020
“Giving purpose to potential.” This tagline is a staple in Business Professionals of America (BPA). From Sunday, February 16 to Tuesday, February 18, 50 students from Xavier High School competed at the Iowa Spring Leadership Conference in Des Moines. This conference hasdifferent competitions includingcomputerized events, optional open events, judged events and team events. Each competition hasdifferent levels of difficulty and skill.
Senior Kate Hessman competed in three events and one open event.She placed first in the BusinessMeeting Management open, second in Advanced Interview and top 10 in Advanced Word Processing.
“Advanced Interview is similarto a mock job interview and WordProcessing focuses on typing andformatting texts. Global Marketingwas a team event that I was a partof where we presented a marketingplan for a company,” Hessman said. “I chose these events because they are what I’m most interested in studying in the future.”
This leadership conference is used to network with professionals in a business setting, along with meeting students from other schools. These connections help students gain knowledge for their future.
“I love learning and getting experience about business while also having fun with my friends,”senior Anika Munjal said. “BPA lets me gain knowledge outsidethe classroom setting about a career I’m interested in.”
To qualify for nationals,students must place top five incomputerized events, top three in judged events, top two in teamevents and first in open events.
“Qualifying for nationals is very hard. There are a lot of people who don’t make it,”senior Zach Noonan said. “I prepared by testing and reading about my topics beforehand.”
There were 36 people whoqualified for nationals from Xavier. These qualifiers have theopportunity to compete at the National Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, May 6 through Sunday, May 10.
