Students compete in BPA competitions

ESCANABA, Mich. (WLUC) - U.P. high schoolers showed off their professional skills today. Eleven schools competed in the 46th Business Professionals of America Regional Leadership Conference.

Some students joined BPA because of their own passions.

“I love doing marketing and accounting and stuff. It’s like my favorite thing right now,” said Caitlyn Stevens, competing in Human Resources Management from Sault Ste. Marie.

Others joined after a gentle nudge from their parents.

“I’ve never done this before, ever so I’m so nervous. I was in a digital business class and also my parents were kind of a little bit like you should do BPA because your brother did it,” said Evelyn Lavey competing in Broadcast News Production from Sault Ste. Marie.

BPA competitions teach students about real-world professions.

“It was cool to go look back on a bunch of stuff and I felt really, really cool being like ‘wow I feel like a professional scriptwriter. Is this what scriptwriters do?’” said Lavey.

There are 63 categories – everything from legal office procedures to video production. It’s also an opportunity for students to find like-minded people.

“It’s very exciting to just hang out with everybody and see what everybody is interested in. Probably also networking with other people. You do get to meet a lot of people through it and see who has similar interests with you,” said Stevens.

Some students in team events say coordinating everyone’s schedule was the most difficult while preparing.

“It was hard to get my whole team to meet up together since there was four of us, but we worked really hard over the break to find different stories,” said Alexia Landis, competing in Broadcast News Production from Sault Ste. Marie.

The top five students in all individual events and the top two teams in team events will move on to the state competition in Grand Rapids.

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