Eastern Michigan University’s Business Professionals of America traveled to Davenport University in Grand Rapids Feb. 13 to compete in the Business Professionals of America Leadership Conference.
This conference consists of students from all over the state competing in a variety of more than 50 competitions, both as a team and individually. 175 students were in attendance at the conference and a total of 13 EMU students attended and competed in 20 competitions, ranging in subjects from accounting to management. A few other competing schools included Central Michigan University, Adrian College, Lake Michigan College and Davenport University.
Of the 13 EMU attendees, 12 qualified to moved onto the National Leadership Conference in Boston, Massachusetts early this May to compete with students across the country.
“The competition was tough,” President of the Business of Professionals of America EMU chapter, Matthew Leddy, said. “I could not be happier with how we did in our first year and I’m confident that we will do even better next year.”
The organization spent six months prior to the competition making sure to be registered and prepared to compete.
National qualifiers that will move to compete in Boston, Massachusetts this May are as follows:
Mathew Leddy, from Saginaw, took first place in Human Resource Management, second in Parliamentary Procedure Concepts, third in Interview Skills, third in Contemporary Issues and third in Management Concepts.
Brian Gardner, from Canton, took second place in Managerial Accounting, third in SQL Database Fundamentals and fourth in Advanced College Accounting.
Monica Jurczyk, from Dearborn, took second place in Administrative Support Concepts, fourth in Ethics and Professionalism and fourth in Management, Marketing and Human Resource Concepts.
Dustin Pepper, from Ypsilanti, took third place in Ethics and Professionalism.
Tayler Rodgers, from Leslie, took third place in Parliamentary Procedure Concepts, fourth in Advanced Interview Skills and fifth in Java Programing.
Nathaniel Kerfoot, from Ann Arbor, took fourth place in College Payroll Accounting.
Thomas Hernandez, from Lincoln Park, took fifth place in Basic Office Systems and Procedures.
The video production team, of Jurczyk, Rodgers, Kaitlin Boroniec (from Trenton) and Tyler Johnson (from Novi) and the administrative support team consisting of Nicholas Lynch (from Saginaw), Melanie Konja (from Rockwood) and Jacob Ranshaw (from St. Clair) took second place in their respective competitions and will move on to the national competition.
This Michigan branch of BPA has 10 college and university chapters and formally joined the national organization in 1972. EMU’s BPA chapter is already looking to recruit members for this upcoming fall. If interested, contact Matthew Leddy at mleddy1@emich.edu. More information on this organization can be found at michiganbpa.org.
