Perham Students Earn Four National Spots at Minnesota BPA State Conference

Four Perham High School students earned spots at the national level after the school sent 29 competitors to the Minnesota Business Professionals of America State Leadership Conference March 5-7 at the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency, where more than 1,200 students from across the state competed.

Perham finished the conference with nine Top Nine Finalists and four national qualifiers. Miley Anderson led the individual results by placing third in Entrepreneurship, securing a solo national berth. Anderson also anchors the school's Broadcast News Team alongside Jillian Bain, Lydia Klettke and Sam Moulzolf, which qualified as a unit. All four will travel to Nashville, Tennessee in May for the 60th annual National Leadership Conference, described by BPA as the pinnacle of its competition and a gathering of thousands of top students from across the United States.

The full list of Perham's Top Nine Finalists reflects a wide range of disciplines. Noah Brasel advanced in Advanced Accounting, and Sam Moulzolf reached the Top Nine in Intermediate Word Processing in addition to his role on the national-qualifying Broadcast News Team. Jillian Bain, who also competes nationally as part of that team, was a finalist in Advanced Interview. Nora Murdock placed in Presentation Individual, and Brightyn Barthel finished in the Top Nine in Health Research Presentation. Kylie Lamb earned a Top Nine finish in Interview Skills, and the trio of Jaya Bain, Monica Bell and Hailey Drewes reached the Top Nine together in Video Productions.

BPA's competitive events program spans nearly 70 events in areas including finance, business administration, management information systems, digital communication and design, and management, marketing and communication. During the current school year, more than 2,000 Minnesota BPA members participated in that program statewide. The competitions are designed to assess real-world business skills and problem-solving abilities, with regional qualifiers advancing to the state conference before the strongest finishers move on to nationals.

For Perham, the path to Nashville required first winning at the regional level earlier this year. The four students heading to the national stage will compete against peers from every state when the 60th annual National Leadership Conference convenes in May.