The Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter at South has continued to have success this school year.

According to BPA sponsor Rosanna McManamon, BPA members participate in competitions against BPA chapters from other schools. In each competition, participants compete in a maximum of two of four possible categories.

“It’s really divided into four areas,” McManamon said. “Financial, which is like accounting; administrator support, which is the Microsoft Office package; information technology, which is technical computer stuff; and then management and marketing of human resources, which is presentations having to do with human resource management or interview skills.”

According to McManamon, there are three competitions: Area, State and Nationals. Nearly each of the 40 BPA members qualified for the State competition after participating in the Area competition. At the State competition, seven members qualified for Nationals, which will be held May 7-12 in Orlando. Juniors Hinna Raja and Nick Langas received first place in their respective categories.

According to BPA president Max Mattappillil, students are preparing for Nationals by taking tests from previous competitions and asking McManamon for advice.

“Before, people would just enter an event without knowing much about it, but taking a practice test and familiarizing themselves with the material really helped boost scores,” Mattappillil said.

Another success for the BPA chapter at South was receiving the Professional Cup, a trophy given to the most outstanding BPA chapter in regards to service outside of the school. Judges chose the deserving chapter based on descriptions of the services that students wrote.

Numerous BPA members also received Statesmen Torch Awards, given to students for success in all seven ‘torches’ of leadership: service, cooperation, knowledge, friendship, hope and faith, love and patriotism.

Finally, McManamon said, as State Officer, junior Anastasia Athas led a team of seven students from other schools to raise over $4,500 for the Special Olympics.

McManamon and Mattappillil are hopeful that BPA will continue to be successful next year, despite BPA’s new requirement for members to be enrolled in a business class. This could lower BPA participation.

“We’ve had a strong group of members that did very, very well this year, and I’m sure they’ll join next year,” Mattappillil said.