BPA team surprises at competition

HOUSTON — While many high school clubs aim to exercise the body, one club at Houston is designed solely to exercise the mind. Instead of running laps and performing jumping jacks, Houston’s own Business Professionals of America practice web design and business management to prepare for upcoming events and future careers.

Houston’s BPA team recently participated in a state competition involving the BPA teams from other schools in Alaska. Even though it was a small group, it still came out on top. Sam Starkenburg, a junior, won first place in PC troubleshooting and second place in digital media production. Sophomore Bob Brown achieved second place in PC troubleshooting as well as second place in word processing skills. Senior Dion Crump took on extemporaneous speech and achieved fourth place.

Sophomore Brandy Malidore came in fourth in graphic design promotion then teamed up with senior Chelsea McCamon and junior Megan Stahl to place first in website design and earn a $1,000 scholarship.

In February, the six BPA members and their adviser, Kristopher Wagoner, attended the BPA regional competition at Su-Valley High School and ended the event with pure success.

Every member placed in the top three in their categories and any doubts about Houston were blown out of the water.

Bob Brown placed second in small business management. He learned many things from the competition, such as numbers on a team don’t matter. Even while competing against schools with a large number of BPA members, Houston still came out on top.

Joining BPA made Brown want to aim for better grades.

“This year I have made honor roll for the first time,” he said.

Brandy Malidore, also a sophomore, remained determined through the competition and placed first in graphic design. Regionals taught Malidore that even if you go in small, you can come out big.

“Everyone was expecting us to come in as the underdogs, and they didn’t expect much of us. We had a small team,” Malidore said. “But at the end of the day, we came out on top in our events and surprised everyone. So never underestimate your competition — a great lesson to be learned when dealing with the business world.”

For junior Starkenburg, the best part about regionals was being able to compare Houston to other schools around the Valley. Competing with other members gave him a small taste of what he’s up against at the state competition.

Starkenburg placed first in PC troubleshooting; however, he feels he could have done better.

“I feel that I didn’t do my best on it, I didn’t fully prepare,” he said. The competition taught him to use better ethics when studying and not to cram everything into one quick session right before the competition.

Kristopher Wagoner, BPA’s adviser, said he left regionals with a great sense of pride. He said he got the club involved in the competition because he knows how competitive the work world is, and he wanted students to be prepared before they go out on their own.

“Plus, it’s fun to compete; it’s perfectly natural,” he added.

To prepare the members for the competition, Wagoner said they performed a lot of practice tests and critiquing.

“I reviewed a lot of the projects they were working on before we actually went to the competition, and we did some simple test prep stuff and how to speak to people in the business setting,” Wagoner said.

There were many events at regionals, but Wagoner said the hardest one was web design because three people had to work on it together and there was a lot of information that had to be included. The group was assigned to design a promotional website for a national leadership conference that will be held next year.

The BPA members did a great job representing Houston at both events and let their Hawk pride fly high.

“You know those situations when you’re on a team or in a group, and you’re at a conference or sporting event and there’s that one person on your team that acts a fool,” Wagoner said. “You look at them and go, ‘Oh wow, I’m glad I’m not on that team,’ but then you realize it is your team. We don’t have any of that. We represent very well; we conduct ourselves in a very professional manner.”

Although regionals taught Wagoner that the team needed a lot of work before they went to state, it also taught him that the six BPA members can do anything they set their mind to.

“I was apprehensive at first and a little nervous. As a general rule, you don’t send your platoon into a firefight without being prepared. That’s what I kept thinking back to. Are they prepared? Do they have the ammunition they need to win the battle? They do. I’m not going to lie; I felt great, like all of the hard work I put into the club finally paid off,” Wagoner said.

The future for Houston’s Business Professionals of America will be busy and requires hard work, but the members and adviser are ready for the next step.

During April, they plan to hold a raffle and canned food drive and expand their business knowledge. They also plan to hold their second annual garage sale on May 7 to raise money for the club.

Kylie Boepple is a senior at Houston High School.