Mineral County Business Professionals of America (BPA) students returned from the annual State Leadership Conference where 14 students placed. Eleven students from St. Regis and eight from Superior will continue on to the National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Anaheim, Calif., set for May 1-5.

Superior sent 20 students to state, St. Regis sent 16 and Alberton, four. Alberton students were Eryn Odell; Emmah Baughman, Lyssa Kromrey; and Kristina Solinger.

BPA is the nation’s leading Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) for students pursuing careers in business management, information technology, finance, accounting office administration, and other business-related career fields.

With 45,000 members in over 1,800 chapters across 25 states and Puerto Rico, BPA is a co-curricular organization that supports business and information technology educators by offering co-curricular exercises based on national standards.

More than 5,000 students attend nationals where there are a variety of fun activities, workshops, and speakers. For five days the students showcase their abilities with a wide-variety of business related categories including interviewing, spreadsheets, law, public speaking and business procedures.

St. Regis member Kimberlynn Parsons said her chapter had “a very successful State Leadership Conference. They worked so hard and it payed off. They placed in the top 10 in 14 events taking three first-place plaques. Anaheim, here we come! Five members also received their Statesman during the Torch Awards Ceremony.”

The BPA Torch Award recognizes members who show exceptional leadership and service to their chapter and community. The program recognizes outstanding, actively involved student members on the local, regional, state and national levels.

“In total, we had 11 BPA members from St Regis qualify for the National Leadership Conference with several of them advancing in multiple events,” said St. Regis’ BPA supervisor Michael Cooper. “These students work hard to maintain high standards of excellence in academics, athletics, community service and student organization. Their qualification for the NLC is very well-deserved.”

All St. Regis qualifiers, including their event and ranking for the National Leadership Conference in Anaheim are: Madison Kelly - Economic Research Individual - 1st place; Ashley Wilson - Entrepreneurship - 1st place; Economic Research Team (Madison Kelly, Makaela Kelly, Baylee Pruitt) - 1st place; Emma Hill - Presentation Management - 2nd place; Makynna Lowry - Advanced Word Processing - 2nd place ; Small Business Management Team (Emma Hill, Kylee Thompson, and Taylor Hurd) - 4th Place; Makaela Kelly - Basic Office Systems and Procedures - 5th place; Ian Farris - Advanced Word Processing - 6th Place; Kim Parsons - Ambassador Torch Award Winner; Carter Jasper - Business Law and Ethics - 7th Place. Also, Madison Kelly, Emma Hill and Makaela Kelly all qualified for the NLC in multiple events.

Superior BPA members going to Nationals include Jacob Lapinski - 9th in Advanced Spreadsheet; Summer Bonsell - state champion in Administrative Support Research; Bailey Milender - 2nd in Graphic Design Production; Cassie Green - 7th in Graphic Design Production; Taylor Haskins - 9th in Graphic Design Production; Jack Mitchell: 4th in Digital Media; Howard Edison - 10th in Computer Security; and Joseph Cantrell - 8th in PC Service and Troubleshooting.

It costs approximately $1,600 for each student to attend nationals. Students from both schools will be holding a number of fundraisers. For example, the St. Regis team will be selling Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee, as well as having a raffle for big-ticket items, such as guided fly-fishing trips donated by Brooks Sanford. They will also handle parking at St. Regis Flea Market on Memorial Day Weekend.