On Saturday, March 12th, two students from Switzerland County Schools were called up on stage to take thier place among the best students in the nation who compete in Business Professionals of America (BPA). After four days of multiple competitions, educational tours and various conference activities, they walked up on the stage to recieve the recognition they spent countless hours behind the scenes studying and practicing for.

These judged competitions provide students opportunities to demonstrate workplace skills learned in their business education programs and better prepare them to be future leaders in the workforce. BPA competitive events include more than 85 categories in finance; IT; business administration; public speaking; management information systems; digital communication and design; and management, marketing, and communications.

Students are allowed to compete in  two competitive events. Calleigh Powell-SCHS, was recognized for both events she competed in, Prepared Speech and Interview Skills. Craig Demaree- SCMS, competed in Spreadsheets.

While the top ten may get national recognition, it takes a lot of work and preparation from all the students to be able to qualify for the national competition. Students must compete in district and state competion before earning thire spot at nationals.

Students who qualified for Nationals this year from both the high and middle schools were:

Ariel Oeffinger- Economic Research

Garrett Demaree- Advanced Spreadsheets and Interview Skills

Sydney Thomas- Desktop Publishing

Ben Smith- Financial Literacy