Over the weekend, five Oxford High School students earned the right to compete at the Business Professionals of America (BPA) National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California in early May.
Brenda Martinez, Aidan Schieber, Harrison Lavins and Alicia Kuligowski won first place in the Broadcast News Production Team competition at the BPA State Leadership Conference held in Grand Rapids.
Stephen Reynolds won second place in the Computer Programming Concepts competition. He also placed sixth in the C++ Programming competition.
‘I’m so proud of the students and their can-do attitude,? said Maria Wolbert, a career and technical education teacher at OHS who serves as BPA advisor along with fellow teacher Lisa Butts. ‘We have such incredibly tough competition at our state level.?
Wolbert explained Michigan ‘always wins more awards than any other state? at the national level.
‘We are the most highly competitive state out of all of the states in BPA, so it’s a big deal to move on from Michigan,? she said.
BPA is the leading career technical student organization for young people pursuing careers in business management, office administration, information technology and other related fields. The organization has more than 51,000 members spread across more than 2,300 chapters in 23 states.
This is the second straight year that Oxford’s broadcast news team will move on to the national competition.
Last year, the team placed second at states and third at nationals.
Lavins and Schieber were part of that team as well.
Wolbert said the broadcast news team has set its sights on taking home the gold at nationals. ‘They have that ‘I can, I will? attitude,? she said.
As for Reynolds, Wolbert has ‘very high hopes for him? at nationals.
‘He’s just incredibly bright,? she said. ‘Thank goodness he’s a junior, so we can have him another year.?
Although they won’t move on, it should be noted that Kyler Crabill, Joe Green, Greg Martin and Tyler Stresky placed fourth at states in the Website Design Team competition.
Oxford’s website design teams have earned nine medals at the regional, state and national levels over the past four years, according to Wolbert.
Twenty-one OHS students competed at BPA’s state conference and Wolbert is impressed with their ‘spirit? and ‘dedication.?
‘They are just such a fantastic team,? she said. ‘That’s one thing that I think is unique with Oxford ? the closeness. It made me so proud to see how they embraced the team. It wasn’t just about each person competing; it was about the whole team.?