Batavia BPA State Qualifiers. Photo provided.
BPA Seniors Nathan DeFrank, Savanna Lewis, Brooke Hamilton and Rincie Demmings. Photo provided.

Submitted by Great Oaks.

Forty members of the Batavia High School/Great Oaks chapter of Business Professionals of America (BPA) recently qualified for state competition to test their business skills and knowledge with other top Ohio students after excelling in regional virtual events.

The students are enrolled in the Great Oaks business management satellite program at Batavia High School.

During competitions, students demonstrate occupational competencies as well as their leadership and human relations skills. Competitive events are an integral part of BPA; the goal is to provide all business students with the opportunity to demonstrate workplace skills learned through their business classes.

Great Oaks/Batavia BPA advisor and business teacher Angie Kovacs said, “I was worried they would get discouraged because state and national competitions will be virtual again this year; but instead, we had a record number qualify for state. They knocked it out of the park and I am proud of the entire team.”

State qualifiers are: Skylar Musselman and Austin Hensley – Banking and Finance; Cullen Watson – Economic Research Individual; Jaden Blunt, Jacob Frey, and Jams Langley – Economic Research Team; Ty Shephard – Fundemental Word Processing; Koren Moore-Runck – Intermediate Word Processing; Rincie Demmings – Advanced Word Processing; Marissa Moore – Basic Office Systems; Jordan McGeorge – Advanced Office Systems; Savanna Lewis and Isabelle Bullis – Legal Procedures; Jordan Copenhaver and Kayla Zesaguli – Business Law and Ethics; Shelby Esz and Sydnie Pelle – Global Marketing Team; Mason Weisbrodt – Entrepreneurship; Nathan DeFrank, Daniel Hellmann, Drew Mentzel and Luke Scaggs – Small Business Management Team; Hannah Wiederhold – Interview Skills; Morgan Cravens – Advanced Interview Skills; Issac Hattar – Extemporaneous Speech; Brandon Royse – Prepared Speech; Alanna Mansour – Human Resource Management; Ian Bullis – Ethics & Professionalism; Avery Collier – Presentation Management Individual; Ryan Edmisten, Madison Pawlaczyk, Mikayla Rash, and Jared Teke – Presentation Management Team; Paula Lugo-Salgado and Julia Wolfe – ICD-10-CM Medical Diagnostic Coding; Bree Page – Health Insurance and Medical Billing; Lea Montalvo and Rachel Noshang – Health Administration Procedures; and Grace Brown – Health Leadership/Special Topics.

In a normal year, all forty would travel to Columbus for competition in March. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, all competitions will be virtual this year. Students also have the opportunity to qualify for virtual national competition in May.

Business Professionals of America (BPA) is the leading student organization for members pursuing careers in business, information technology and other related careers.