The slogan of “Today’s students. Tomorrow’s business professionals.” rang especially loud and clear for West High’s Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter during the 2012 State Leadership Conference Feb. 26-28 in Des Moines, Iowa. The three-day-long conference is the pinnacle of the year for the business-student organization that has been a part of the West High community for the past 25 years and determines qualifiers for the National Leadership Conference that will be held April 25-29 in Chicago. Thirty students of West High’s 78 member chapter took part in the competition – making it the second largest in attendance, trailing only Cedar Rapids Prairie High School in membership. In all, 600 high school members from the state of Iowa took part in the conference. This year’s national qualifiers with state rankings representing West are:
Prepared Speech: Meera Ajam ’12 (1st)
Interview Skills:Alex Young ’12 (1st)
Advanced Interview Skills: Quentin Misiag ’12 (1st), Meera Ajam ’12 (2nd)
Entrepreneurship:Tyler Fridrich ’12 (1st)
(1st) Small Business Management Team: Alexa Hansen ’12, Quentin Misiag ’12, Sarah Vining ’12, Sara Petersen ’12
(1st) Global Marketing Team: Brooke Stutsman ’13, Rachel Ranard ’13, Erik Griebel ’12, Tim Fleagle ’12
Presentation Management Individual: Chloe Sadler ’12 (1st), David Cray (‘13) (2nd)
(2nd place) Presentation Management Team: Mariah Clipperton ’12, Keon Hunt ’12, Erin Taber ’12
Extemporaneous Speech:Ana Maria Correa ’12 (3rd)
Management, Marketing & Human Resource Concepts: Colton Proesch ’12 (2nd)
PC Servicing & Troubleshooting: Colton Proesch ’12 (3rd)
Advanced Word Processing Skills: Colton Proesch ’12 (4th)
BPA advisor Diane Fickel couldn’t have been happier with the turnout. “This years state conference proves that hard work pays off. I’m so proud of the students success.”
Sara Petersen ‘12 echoed the feelings of her advisor after learning that she was a national qualifer.“My team (for Small Business Management) with Quentin (Misiag ‘12), Sarah (Vining ‘12) and Lexi (Hansen ‘12) spent countless hours to get to where we are now.”
For Sarah Vining ‘12, becoming a national qualifier was bittersweet. “This is my final year with BPA but I couldn’t have asked for a better team and a better chapter to travel to the National Leadership Conference with.”
For more information on Business Professionals of America, please visit www.bpa.org
Want to see what the National Leadership Conference is all about? Click on the link below to watch the 2012 National Leadership Conference video:
