39 students from Spring Lake’s Business Professionals of America chapter qualified for states in 24 events, a record-breaking number after a day-long regional competition at Davenport University last Friday, Jan. 10. Last year, 25 students qualified. Students will now move on to the state competition held at the Amway over the weekend of March 14.
Six teams qualified for their respective group events, including an all-sophomore team taking second place for the “Website Design Team” event. “We had to create a website for a ‘client’ and match it to their aesthetic and branding and then present it to two judges,” said Reia Wiseman.
Twenty-nine students qualified for 13 individual events, and multiple students qualified for “open” events, non-pre-registered test events taken on the day of regionals, including tests like parliamentary procedures, financial math and analysis, business spelling, and more. Eddie Brown, a senior, qualified for two open events as well as his team and individual events, the most events out of Spring Lake.
Spring Lake’s BPA is a local chapter of the national organization that competes in regional, state, and national competitions. BPA is comprised of freshmen through seniors who select two events to compete in, either individually or with a team. Competition events range from presentation events to research events to paper-and-pencil tests.
BPA will head to the state competition for a weekend in Grand Rapids from March 14-16. Students will polish up their events and compete again, this time for the chance to go to Nationals. Nationals are held in Orlando and include BPA chapters from throughout the country.
