Last month, Carroll Business Professionals of America (BPA) went to the state competition in Corpus Christi and came out with 15 finalists. They will head to Chicago in May to compete among the best of the nation in their events.
Students competed across various events including User Design, Podcasting Production, Banking and Finance, and Global Marketing, in both individual and team competitions. Some events were presentation-based and judged by a panel while others were testing events where students took the test in hopes of performing the best.
The Podcasting Production team, consisting of Kavya Athipatla, Shaadana Rajesh and Anushka Velala placed second.
“We created a podcast called the ‘Pulse Point’ which talked about the impact artificial intelligence has had on education, mental health, and the future of the workforce,” Velala, a freshman on the team, said. “We had to create a presentation about our podcast describing the process of making our podcast, difficulties of the process, how we work as our team, etcetera.”
After students’ first round of judging they were called back if they made the final round and finalists were selected based on their performance in the last round.
Jackson Wang, Nita Dutta and Sinduja Challakonda made up the Global Marketing team and got first place in their event.
“When we found out we were going to advance to nationals it was a surprise for all of us,” Challakonda, a sophomore on the team, said. “We knew we did well in the final round, but there were still aspects we believed we could’ve done better. As a result, there was a small hope in all of us of advancing to Nationals, but we didn’t know how well prepared our competitors were to think we would 100% go to Nationals. When we found out, we were all relieved, glad, and excited that our efforts paid off.”
Other students who made nationals include Jason Gao (2nd place – Payroll Accounting), Ashlynn Tusneem (3rd place – Banking and Finance), Parin Chanana (1st place – Health Insurance and Medical Billing), Sahaj Satani (4th place – Health Insurance and Medical Billing), Allison Nef (9th place – Medical Coding), Shreeya Gogia (4th place- Business Law and Ethics) and Weiyiyi Wei, Ashlynn Tusneem and Serena Tusneem (4th place – User Design Team).
Now the students and teams are working on perfecting their presentations, doing further research, and studying for their testing events, in hopes of becoming a national finalist at the national competition on May 10-15 in Chicago.
“We are going to go over our rubric this weekend, actually, and make sure all aspects of our podcast are national-winning worthy,” Velala said. “We are a bit nervous because of the competition from all over the country; however, we are also really excited and confident in our ability to do well.”
BPA gives students the ability to experience different aspects of the professional workspace in the fields of business management, information technology, finance, office administration, and health administration, in preparation for their future careers.
“BPA has given us all the opportunity to further pursue our interest in the field of business through both a competitive and enjoyable environment,” Challakonda said.
