Photo Courtesy of Washington BPA

A successful state spring leadership conference for the Washington High School Chapter of the Business Professionals of America has led 21 Demons to the National BPA Leadership Conference. In order to make it to the next level of competition, the group is looking for financial help from the Washington community. BPA members Brittany Madrigal, Callie Schiebel and Carson Brown spoke with KCII News about the state competition, qualifying for nationals and what it will take to get there.

Schiebel explained, “There’s so many skills that we learn and then use at competitions that you would use in real life business so it prepares us to do this in the real world. To see our group do so well is really rewarding and I was really proud of our entire chapter. I’m really excited to see how our chapter does at nationals. In years before we have had people place. It’s really cool to come home with a national medal!”

Brown continued, “It’s really great to compete with so many different schools, you get in that room with 100 other students and it shows how much work you put into it because we had 21 of 40 students, place in the top five in their competition. Again, thank you to Ms. Duwa, I think she’s a big part of why we do so well. She definitely likes to push us to our best!

Madrigal added, “I think it’s really rewarding when you know all of the time that gets put in. Some people event take classes like computer apps just to know how all of that works. It’s really rewarding to finally have all of that weight off of your shoulders and know that you had a good result!”

Cost is roughly $1,200 per student to attend nationals. The group is fundraising through a used shoe donation at the Washington Middle School and High School, with the group receiving money based on pounds of shoes collected. They are also coordinating a can drive at those two buildings. The BPA National Leadership Conference is May 7th through the 11th in Orlando, Florida.