WITC-Rice Lake winners at BPA state conference

(3/21/11): WITC-Rice Lake was host to the annual Business Professionals of America (BPA) State Leadership conference in February that was attended by 109 students from 13 Wisconsin technical colleges.

The theme was “Stand out from the Crowd” and the Rice Lake students certainly did. WITC-Rice Lake was well represented by 19 students and received a substantial number of awards in the more than 45 competitions.

Students were tested on many levels of knowledge and skills in areas such as word processing, accounting, legal and medical office procedures, interviewing and speaking, insurance concepts, human resources, computer networks, web design and many others. Besides the competitions, the three-day event also included electing new officers, leadership seminars, and some time for fun and networking with students from other schools.

WITC-Rice Lake students who placed in the competitions were: Cindy Aherns, Spooner, one 1st place, two 2nd place, one 3rd place; Rose Boettcher, one 1st place; LouAnn Cordes, Turtle Lake, two 1st place, two 3rd place; Jennifer Eskola, Rice Lake, two 1st place, two 3rd place; Elizabeth Goebel, Gilman, one 2nd place; Greg Hamner, Rice Lake, five 1st place, two 4th place; Sarah Heller, Spring Valley, one 1st place; Dale Hove, Turtle Lake, two 3rd place, one 4th place, one 5th place; Courtney Krenzke, Rice Lake, one 1st place, one 2nd place, one 3rd place, one 4th place; Donna Michaelson, Chetek, one 3rd place; Jacob Orf, Turtle Lake, three 1st place, one 2nd place, one 4th place; Sandy Sirianni, Rice Lake, one 1st place, one 5th place; Anastasia Smith, Frederic, two 2nd place, two 4th place; Justin Virkus, Luck, one 1st place, one 5th place; Rachel Virkus, Luck, one 1st place, one 4th place; Jennifer Zinsmaster, Cameron, two 1st place, one 2nd place, two 5th place. Also participating were Jessica Hunter and Shanay Sadowski.

Seventeen of the students are hoping to attend the National BPA Leadership Conference in May in Washington, D.C.

At the awards banquet, Scott Elza, WITC-Rice Lake accounting instructor, was also presented with a Business Professionals of America Honorary Life Membership for his leadership and professionalism that “have been an inspiration to our organization as well as the business and education community.” Elza is not only an advisor to the students at the Rice Lake campus, but active on the state and national BPA boards.

Business Professionals of America is the leading Career Technical Student Organization for those pursuing careers in business management, office administration, information technology and other related career fields. BPA has more than 51,000 members nationwide. Their mission is to contribute to the preparation of a world-class workforce through the advancement of leadership, citizenship, academic, and technological skills.

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WITC-Rice Lake winners at BPA state conference