At last month’s Business Professionals of America State Leadership Conference, four University of Idaho students earned multiple first-place finishes, securing their spot at the BPA National Leadership Conference to take place in Orlando, Florida, this May.
“It’s always fun to compete at the state competition,” said senior Colton Moore. He continued, “It’s exciting to be able to get to nationals, and [state’s] obviously a steppingstone in that path.”
The four secured the team award for podcasting, as well as multiple individual first-place wins, spanning across a range of professional skill sets: Sophia Gill in Interview Skills, Moore in Advanced Desktop Publishing and Graphic Design Promotion, Rylee Wimer in Digital Media Production and Advanced Interview and Josh Norlin in C++ Programming and Website Design. The team is now turning their sights toward nationals.
“I think that’s the interesting thing, we’re all in very different fields of study and we all are still competing within what our major is,” sophomore Wimer said regarding the range of skills relevant to BPA. “We’re all across campus. We’re in different colleges, we’re in different majors, and we’re still competing within what we’re interested in.”
Next month, the team will represent UI against the best BPA chapters at the college and university level from across the state.
The BPA team will now put their efforts towards preparing for nationals, both for their competitive categories as well as fundraising to cover attendance expenses. The National Leadership Conference will begin May 7.
Julia Kolman can be reached at [email protected].