The business students of Manhattan are headed to the Windy City in the second week of May. Business Professionals of America is holding their annual national conference in Chicago. Members are currently preparing for their events as they will go to compete against students from across the United States. 

MHS members attended the State conference last February in Wichita, where 14 students qualified and signed up to fly to Chicago to compete in their specific events. 

“To prepare we are doing some fine tuning to our presentation,” senior Anna Jund said. “We got some critiques back from our judges at State and they gave us really good feedback, which we are trying to use to make our presentation even better than it was at State.” 

Jund qualified alongside her teammates seniors Eli Kunz and Carter Oehme in global marketing. All of the members attending the conference will compete in different events that pertain to all the different aspects of business, from design to management and more.  

“I’m looking forward to meeting BPA students from other states!” said senior Samantha Allman, who qualified in advanced desktop publishing. 

“For me I’m most looking forward to just spending some time in Chicago, I’ve never been and I’ve heard we have some pretty fun activities planned,” Jund said.  

During the conference students will have the opportunity to interact with and see the work of students from across the US. A special part of the National BPA Conference is pin trading. Each state will design and create an enamel pin that reflects their state. Then, each student will receive a handful of their state pins to trade with other students.  

“It is exciting to get to travel to different cities each year for Nationals and meet other students and advisors from across the country,” sponsor Kristen Hopkins said. “We have a lot of fun at nationals and during down time, get to explore the city. Trading state pins is also a huge hit with everyone!” 

These members of BPA are representing our high school on the national level. They have worked hard the entire year to perfect their skills and going to the conference will grow these skills and their understanding of all the possibilities in a business career.  

“The best part is seeing the students’ hard work and preparation paying off,” Hopkins said.