After many months of preparation the Manhattan High students in Business Professionals of America headed to Wichita to compete in the State competition. 19 students were able to place high enough to allow them to continue onto the National competition, in both individual and group events.

“We got to meet lots of new people from other schools as voting delegates,” senior Audrey Cook said. “We also got to know the people from our school better.” 

Cook placed sixth in graphic design and second in the small business team management category, in a group that included senior Grace Bannister, senior Amarti Tesfaye and senior Saylor Salmans. Bannister placed third in entrepreneurship and Salmans took third in HR management. 

Cook was also one of two people in the state to receive a BPA scholarship. 

Other awards included junior Eli Kunz and sophomore Patrick Fu placing second in the global marketing team category, junior Samantha Allman, sophomore Claire Moiser and sophomore Rachel Palmgren taking second in visual team design. Palmgren was also the state champion in graphic design.

Junior Sonika Khosla placed second in health admin and special topics. 

“My favorite part was the awards ceremony,” Khosla said. “We were all so excited for each other and I was so happy to hear my name get called and to know I placed for nationals.” 

Sophomore Wyatt Sullivan was state champion in computer modeling and sophomore Rachel Wei received third place in fundamental desktop publishing, as well as fifth place in visual design with sophomore Mian Zhao. sophomore Savannah Price took fifth in ethics and professionalism, senior Melany Buscot-Reyno placed fourth in entrepreneurship and sophomore Kiku Nagai-Velaquez placed seventh  in fundamental word processing. Sophomore Raisa Hossain competed in interview skills and took second and sophomore Saba Mirafzal competed in extemporaneous speech and received a third place award. In health insurance and medical billing sophomore Sama Nepal placed fourth, and in the Python programming category sophomore Markus Hohen took fourth place. Senior Drew Tatum placed 5th in the professional financial management competition, sophomore Kylie Kim placed fourth in basic office procedures and sophomore Oliver Cunningham placed fourth in spreadsheet applications. 

Everyone who placed in the top five in testing events and top three in presentation events is preparing for nationals. 

“My hope going into nationals is that I can improve my presentation as much as I can,” Khosla said. “And that I enjoy the experience with my friends.”