Imagining, becoming and believing

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The finalists wait in the stands before the awards ceremony starts. Awards started at 8:30 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Cami Wallace, Author

On Wednesday, May 6, 13 BPA members headed to Anaheim, Calif., for Nationals.

Among the winners were Lake Central’s very own. A team event, Web Application, placed second. The team members were Brandon Long (12), Kevin Geiser (12) and Nicholas Beigel (12).

“Web Application is where you build a website that’s not so much about the looks but more so about the functionality: what it does [and] what it can do. It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, not what you see on the front. It’s a lot of numbers and calculations. It’s what the site can do, not looks,” Long said.

In Web Application, the website is pre-judged and only the top 10 teams that qualified for Nationals could go. In order for the success, teamwork was needed.

“I did the coding, [Geiser] did the cross-browser checks, and [Long] did all of the content,” Beigel said.

The winners were called into a loading section before the event’s winners were announced.

“It was exciting in front of the crowd [with] people watching intently. [I felt] excited and happy because we worked so hard for it,” Biegel said.

The next national convention will be held May 5-9 of next year in Boston, MA.