Mineral County BPA groups head to Missoula

MINERAL COUNTY – The next generation of business tycoon headed to Missoula this week to put their skills to the test against teams from across the region during the annual regional Business Professionals of America competition.

Teams from all three Mineral County schools made the trip to Missoula to have their work judged and compete in a wide variety of events. BPA is an organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation and understanding of business practices and management. One team from Mineral County making the trip from Superior were busy last week putting the final, finishing touches on their presentations and work.

Superior High School BPA Co-advisor Jaime Toivonen said the students were well prepared to live up to the success of previous years. She said the regional competition in Missoula would be an opportunity for students to potentially move on to the state competition and take on students from all over Montana. She also said students being under the microscope wouldn’t be the only thing happening at the event.

“We have guest speakers coming in,” Toivonen said. “The dean of the accounting department at the University of Montana is going to be there to talk about the business department. It’s all focused on business related activities.”

Toivonen said the students from Superior were involved in judged events such as broadcast journalism and graphic design as well as mock interview competitions. She said they would also be doing public speaking on prepared topics and impromptu topics where they will have to think on their feet.

“They will do extemporaneous speech where they will be given, on the fly, a topic,” Toivonen said. “They will have to speak for three to five minutes. Then there’s the tested events with accounting, computer programming and coding.”

Toivonen said there would be over a hundred students competing at the regional event in Missoula. Those who qualify in their individual events, will move on to the state competition with over 2,000 students attending.

BPA is a leading Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) for those students interested in pursuing careers in business management, office administration, information technology and other business related fields.

BPA has over 40,000 members in over 2,300 chapters in 23 states. The Workplace Skills Assessment Program (WSAP) prepares students to succeed and assesses real-world business skills and problem solving abilities in finance, management, IT and computer applications. It is BPA’s flagship program and allows students to demonstrate their skills at regional, state and national conferences in over 70 competitive events.

Some of BPA’s other major programs include the National Leadership Academy, Officer Elections and scholarships. The Torch Awards Program and BPA Cares Program recognizes students and chapters, respectively, for leadership and service to their chapter and community.

The mission of Business Professionals of America is to foster the creation of a world-class workforce through the advancement of leadership, citizenship, academic and technological skills.