Eight Manhattan High students are headed to the national Business Professionals of American contest in May following their competition at the State Leadership conference Feb. 17-19 in Wichita.

BPA advisor Kristen Hopkins took the 21 students competing to the event. Eight Manhattan High School students qualified for Nationals, 

“[I] really liked having the opportunity to do something normal and academic after COVID had shut it down last year,” said junior Grace Bannister. 

The students competed in a variety of business-focused events like banking and finance, entrepreneurship, business law and ethics, and many more. Around 400 high school students from across Kansas competed. Each student chose two events to compete in. 

“I participated in graphic design and presentation management as a team,” said sophomore Laura Shamburg, who also placed sixth in graphic design. 

The students have been preparing for this event since October of 2021.

 “Whether it’s a presentation event or tested event, they had plenty of time to get ready for it and prepare,” Hopkins said.

The conference was certainly a learning experience for all the students involved, “in general pushing myself out of my comfort zone,” Bannister said, “with public speaking that was a huge thing for me and BPA really pushed me to get over that.”

Three students are also national alternates: juniors Amati Tesfaye and Audrey Cook and sophomore Tatum Tindall.

 “It was a good experience to be there,” Cook said.

Nationals this year will take place in May in Dallas, where the national finalist will compete with students and high schools all over the U.S. as well as Cuba.