Students from Lisbon’s Business Professionals of America are preparing for travel to the national competition in Anaheim, Calif., this week. Students presented before their trip to members of the Lisbon School Board at the April 12 meeting.
Instructor Amanda Zenisek said this was the first year of the program at Lisbon, and is part of the school’s career and technical education requirements. BPA has three conferences each year – the fall leadership conference, the spring conference and national competition.
The fall conference had four students attend and they learned items like lunch etiquette and other topics related to business.
The spring conference had numerous competitions for many of the students.
Nathan Ricke, one of three Lisbon students at the National conference, explained how he and Bennett Cart completed their 3D computer animation.
“I chose to use Blender animation, a program I was familiar with,” Ricke said. “Every single item in the animation had to be made by me.”
Zenisek said that, looking at some of the other animations that went to nationals, some of the other schools didn’t do the level of work on their projects her students did, utilizing preconstructed animation elements or assets.
Ricke said he has made some changes to the rendition in preparation of nationals, and he appreciated the feedback from a judge for those improvements. There are more than 2000 frames in the short film, and it took a lot of time to complete. Ricke said that working on short film for speech is easier, because working with actors and real-life locations cuts down on a lot of work.
Payton Donohoe qualified for nationals, based on his scores on Health Admin procedures.
“I had to study for the tests before hand and learn a lot of the clinic skills I might need to be successful,” Donohoe said.
He also was a high scorer in medical diagnostic coding and business law and ethics tests.
“BPA is definitely something I encourage other students to do and something I will compete in again,” Donohoe said.
Zenisek said that she didn’t realize that Donohoe would be able to bring notes/aids with him for some of the tests, so his high scoring without notes was even more impressive.
Zenisek said that while nationals are the focus this year, BPA provides opportunities for students to get industry certifications and potential scholarships.
Business Professionals of America students preparing for nationals trek
April 20, 2023
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.