At the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California, 20 students participating in various programs at Polaris Career Center took home top spots in several competitions.
Twenty students from various academic programs recently completed the Business Professionals of America (or BPA) National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California. The Polaris students’ focuses of discipline were Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Broadcasting & Video Production, and Business Professional & Office Technology.
BPA is a country-wide student organization for young people who are working toward achieving careers in health administration, management, marketing and communication, digital communication and design, management information systems, business administration, and finance.
Around the country, BPA has over 46,000 student members throughout 25 states, as well as Puerto Rico, broken up into 1,800 chapters. The Leadership Conference competitions allow the students to showcase their skill sets in a high pressure setting, which prepares them to perform well in high paying jobs after graduation. This year there have been more than 90 events, allowing for thousands of student delegates to compete.
According to an article on the center's website, students from Polaris Career Center placed first in two different events: the social media marketing challenge and financial portfolio management.
The winner of the Student Social Media Marketing Competition was Logan Gomez, a Polaris Business Professional & Office Technology senior from Olmsted Falls High School. He was awarded a prize of $500. The challenge was for participants to use their social media marketing skills to manage a simulated ad budget for a fictitious global bag company. They used their social media skills across several social media platforms including Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
The financial portfolio management team was comprised of all juniors from the Business Professional & Office Technology program at Polaris: Julie Beshara of Strongsville High School, Veera Patel of Berea-Midpark High School, Addison Loescher of Fairview High School, and Olivia Callahan of Brooklyn High School. For the event, the students competed in an online simulation where they were given a starting investment of $100,000. Each of the teams that placed in the top 20 in terms of portfolio value were then asked to give a virtual presentation that highlighted their challenges and successes. The team with the highest cumulative score between these two challenges was deemed the winner.
Polaris students finished in the top three in three other events as well.
Brayden Cupach, junior, and llyanna Egans, senior, who are both in the Polaris Marketing & Entrepreneurship program at Berea-Midpark High School, finished third in the branding team event and also won Best In Show with their conference display.
The team of juniors Samantha VanHove of Strongsville High School, Jessica Paracsi of Fairview High School, Braeden Mueller of Olmsted Falls High School, and Steven Goodnough of Olmsted Falls High School, took third place in the financial portfolio management team event.
Business Professional & Office Technology senior from North Olmsted High School, Mason Fiorilli, finished second in the banking & finance competition.
More information about Polaris Career Center can be found at the center’s website.