76 of West High School’s Business Professionals of America club students recently traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to compete in their events. This conference provided an opportunity for students from across the state to showcase their skills in business, professionalism and leadership. Those who won will now get the chance to compete on the national level for the BPA National Leadership Conference, held May 7-11 in Orlando, Florida. This year’s National Leadership Conference theme is “Capture the Moment.”

Two West students also threw their hat in the ring for the Iowa state leadership board. Praneel Rastogi ’26 was sworn in as the new board President, while Iarafa Dirar ’26 became the board’s newest Vice President of Marketing. The conference also saw the end of the term of West students Junze Sun ’25 and Jack Twait ’25 as the Secretary/Treasurer and Vice President of Marketing, respectively, from the state leadership board. 

Here is a detailed list of the results:

Advanced Interview Skills

#1 Layan Ahmed

#2 Brooklynne Nock

#3 Jack Twait

Visual Design Team 

#1 Fiona Graber, Lucy Maxwell, Brooklynne Nock and Mackenzie Oberbroeckling

#2 Lila Bihun, Taleen Rahhal, Rayan Saad and Ciram Shargawi

#3 Jack Twait and Rowen Bihun

Small Business Management Team

#1 Chare Bopp, Butali Butali, Serafim Surguladze and Brady Thoma

#2 Dylan Colleran and Ayden Thomas

#3 Dylan Ashby, Nirvan Kandel and Neta Levin

Video Production Team

#1 Allison Asay, Evelyn Asay, Susanna Olson and Emily Stong

#2 Mia Ahn and Anika Kuppachi

Financial Analyst Team 

#1 Junze Sun, Levi Hodge, Aaron Kang and Oliver Neppl

#3 Praneel Rastogi and Maddox Smith

Podcast Production Team

#1 Nattie Gentiluomo, Peter Lake, Maddox Lyons and Xuvia Stevenson

#2 Emily Hagiwara and Avanley Jones

Entrepreneurship

#1 Taleen Rahhal

#3 Mohammed Elamahi

Graphic Design Team

#1 Stella Hunter

#2 Annie Dickens

#3 Omnia Ahmed

Presentation Management Individual

#1 Layan Ahmed

#3 Avanley Jones

Presentation Management Team

#1 Oliver Knight and Dara Olaleye

Health Research Presentation

#1 Mia Ahn

Economic Research Team

#1 Audrey Crawford and Myra Crawford

Digital Media Production

#1 Omnia Ahmed

#2 Matab Yagoub

Human Resource Management 

#1 Audrey Crawford

#3 Ella Ciliberto

Computer Modeling

#1 Cy McEachnie

#2 Praneel Rastogi

Broadcast News Team

#3 Omnia Ali, Ira Dirar, Abeer Guama and Matab Yagoub

Interview Skills 

#2 Mackenzie Oberbroeckling

Ethics and Professionalism 

#3 Kathryn Croco

Personal Financial Management

#3 Junze Sun

Banking and Finance

#5 Chase Bopp

Parliamentarian Professional Concepts 

#3 Matab Yagoub

Digital Communication and Design Concepts

#3 Matab Yagoub

Fundamental Desktop Publishing

#4 Lily Tentinger

Club advisors Diane Fickel and Emily Hudachek are now preparing to take 55 West students to the national leadership conference, setting an Iowa record. More information about the national conference can be found here.