Montana conference: Serving locally and leading globally

Secondary students from across Montana attended the 2014 State Leadership Conference for the Montana Association of Business Professionals of America in Billings, Montana, March 9-11, 2014.

The 2014 Montana BPA State Leadership Conference was held at City College Montana State University-Billings, the Holiday Inn Grand Montana and Convention Center, and the Billings Hotel and Convention Center.

Members from the Libby High School chapter and and I joined 1,350 students, local chapter advisors and chaperones who gathered in a spirit of friendship and goodwill  as the Montana association assisted the members in “serving locally, leading globally” through participation in the areas of competitive events, leadership, community development and professionalism.

During the three-day event, students demonstrated their knowledge in business and technological skills and abilities in more than 60 different competitive events from within the five core assessment areas of finance, business administration, management information systems, digital communication and design, and management, marketing and communication.

The top finalists in each event advance to compete at the National Leadership Conference this spring in Indianapolis, Ind., on April 30 to May 4.

Business Professionals of America is the leading Career Technical Student Organizations for students pursuing careers in business management, finance, office administration, information technology and other related career fields.

Business Professionals of America has more than 50,000 members in over 2,300 chapters in 28 states. Business Professionals of America is a “co-curricular” organization that supports business and information technology educators by offering curriculum based on national standards.

This year, the secondary Montana association has 1,659 members and more than 90 chapters. Our Montana post-secondary virtual and non-virtual chapters have 10 total members.  

Libby had 30 students compete at Regionals in Kalispell in January, and 22 of those students advanced to the state level. Of those 22, 17 students went on to compete at state this year and competed in many different competitive events.  

The top finishers for Libby were Cody Barrick placing fourth in advanced- office systems and procedures and first in advanced-spreadsheet applications.  

Kari Lindgrin placed 10th in digital publishing with InDesign, and new to Business Professionals of America this year, Tina Smith, placed 10th in integrated office applications.

(Michelle Foss is the advisor for the Libby High School Business Professionals of America group.)