Lucas Kroll | Staff Writer
On Sunday through Tuesday, 22 student representatives went downtown to compete in the Business Professionals of America state leadership conference at the Indianapolis Marriott.
Business Professionals of America, BPA, is a nationally recognized business club at Center Grove. Around the United States, there are over 2,300 chapters in 23 different states with an estimated membership of over 43,000 students.
“We competed all throughout Sunday and Monday doing our events, going to leadership sessions, and taking open tests. Then we had our awards ceremony on Tuesday,” Victor Gastelum ‘19 said, who competed in digital marketing and business and financial management.
BPA State is not solely about competing in business events, it is also about meeting people from other schools and networking, time-management, and enjoying what downtown has to offer.
“At BPA we spend much of our time going to different places to do events, eat, and hang out,” president of BPA, Will Pack ‘19 said, who competed in economic research and won in digital marketing. “We meet various different people from throughout the state of Indiana. Also, we have to be responsible for ourselves and getting to our events on time.”
Every year, the top performers in the competitions at State qualify for Nationals which is held in a different location every year. Center Grove had around 20 members participating at the State conference, with nine members qualifying for the national leadership conference in Anaheim, California.
“Qualifying for nationals was an exciting experience,” Phillip Golder ‘20 said, who won in legal office procedures. “To do well you had to type legal documents quickly and accurately. I practiced quite a bit, and even though I will not be attending nationals, I am still glad to qualify.”
Sophomores Christina Monev, Andy Lam, Dhrumil Patel, Parthiv Patel and Vaibhava Potturu competed and won as a group in computer animation during last week’s BPA state convention.
All five will be attending the National Leadership Conference from May 1-5 in Anaheim. There, the group will compete to rank nationally among other high school BPA chapters.
