BPA teams head to state

MINERAL COUNTY – Earlier this week Mineral County students put their business skills to the test as they presented their projects at the Business Professionals of America State Leadership Conference in Billings.

Chad Eichenlaub, the BPA advisor and business teacher at St. Regis, said there were two main types of competitions. There were testing events and judged competitions. For the judged competitions, the groups had to create a project to present. The projects had to demonstrate the student’s grasp of professional business skills.

“The judged competitions, there are a wide variety of [topics],” Eichenlaub said. “One is a presentation about business etiquette in a country of your choice. The team event is a presentation on teamwork.”

St. Regis had one student in the foreign business etiquette competition. The student decided to do their project on etiquette in Brazil.

There were 17 students from St. Regis who qualified to go to the state competition this year. The qualifying students were determined at the regional competition in Missoula.

The St. Regis team as a whole was bigger this year than it has been in the past. Eichenlaub said they doubled enrollment since last year. He felt part of this was because the school changed how the chapter ran.

St. Regis also brought a group for the competition in graphic design promotions. Eichenlaub said the students had to create a promotional poster and logo for next year’s national competition.

“If their project were to win, that would be the poster they would use for the competition,” Eichenlaub said.

With better projects than last year, Eichenlaub was confident of his team’s chances. He said the students had worked hard to make the projects perfect.

Superior High School’s program was also represented at the state competition. The rivalry between the schools continued into the BPA events as Superior brought a solo project of their own. The subject of their project was a video to get companies to invest in BPA.

A different group of Superior students made a video as well, but for a separate competition. Their project was a video about the importance of keeping hydrated in sports as well as day-to-day life.

Developing the leaders and business owners of tomorrow is the goal of BPA. Eichenlaub said many of the projects were based on the things he taught in his class. Students who took the class would get the skills to do well in the competitions.

“Some students realize that and put some more work into it and spend more time getting caught up on accounting…or going through some of the software to figure out some of the things they would need to know for the competition,” Eichenlaub said.

The teams left on Saturday, March 8 for the three-day competition. The event began on Sunday, March 9 and ended on Tuesday, March 11.

In the past, there have been over 2,000 kids from across the state at the competition. With approximately 30 groups competing at once, the competition would be fast paced and difficult.

The National Leadership Conference is in Indianapolis from April 30 to May 4. The top two teams, top three individuals and top five scorers in testing events qualify to go. St. Regis had one student qualify for nationals last year.

On Tuesday, March 11, the competition was still underway and results were unknown.