The Business Professionals of America (BPA) club at Seminole High School headed to Seminole State College to compete at districts on Dec. 4. BPA is an organization that allows students to prepare for business related jobs in the future. Members of the club are given the chance to participate in speech events, market plans, graphic design, and videos.

Competitions are held once a year, beginning with districts, where only schools from Seminole county compete. There are many small teams, composed of three or four people and individual competitors, and if they get a high enough score, they move on to states and then nationals. The state competition will be held in February and nationals will take place in June 2016.

President of BPA Junior Anna Jurlina says, “Preparing for competition helps all participants on their path to a career related to business. From early on I showed a strong interest in business, so this club is a great outlet to express my talents.”

At the competition, group and individual projects are presented to a panel of judges, after which they will be evaluated and critiqued. Once the presentations are over, participants have the option to compete in an open event, which is a 50 question multiple choice test. The participants get to choose from a variety of topics before taking the test, such as business administration or information technology.

Junior Michael Bishop says, “Even though it’s just one competition, I think it will help me a lot in the future because now I feel more comfortable presenting to people outside of school, working together with others and familiarizing myself with the business atmosphere.”

The results of the competition have been released. The global marketing team, which consists of Elizabeth McCown, Meghana Vonguru, and Annie Palladino, won first place and will advance to state competition.

Junior Elizabeth McCown says, “I was in a group presenting a global marketing plan, so we explained our goals and what we hoped to achieve to the judges. We learned presentation skills, working together to complete a task, a business professional appearance and the way to properly present yourself and act in business situations.”

BPA and it’s competitions provide a learning environment for those interested in a career in business and aid participants in the understanding of what the business world is like.