From March 12 through the 14, 40 members of Business Professionals of America competed in Indianapolis for the State competition. Of those 40, 12 qualified for Nationals.
“I was really excited because it was so nice to see the number of kids who got first, second or third. That was probably the biggest improvement over the past few years,” Mr. Todd Iwema, Business, said.
Four competitors–Joseph Jakubowicz (11) in Fundamental Spreadsheet Application, Joseph Grzybek (12) in Fundamental Accounting, Nathan Jackson (12) in C++ Programming and Preston Petrie (12) in Java Programming–placed first in their events.
“It felt good to get first place at State. I wasn’t sure how I did because I was taking longer than I was used to. After [the announcers] got past fifth place [at the Awards Ceremony], I knew I was going to Nationals, and it was all good from there,” Grzybek said.
Besides the individual competitions, BPA members could take open events, which were for anyone to compete in.
“Seeing that so many students placed in one of the first opens and it was seven out of 10 that were Lake Central was really impressive for other schools to see,” Mr. Iwema said.
Just as Mr. Iwema was pleased with the outcome in opens, some students who placed felt the same.
“It felt nice [placing first in Computer Programming Concepts]. It makes me feel that I can adapt to things I am not fully prepared for,” Marcus Orciuch (10) said.
