Rockwall ISD students sweep BPA nationals with two national titles

Two Rockwall ISD teams earned national championships at the 2026 Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference in Nashville, and every one of the 18 Dr. Gene Burton College and Career Academy students who competed finished in the Top 10.

The visual design team of Arya Davis, Nico Patrick and Aijha Lias placed first, while the software engineering team of Trilochana Sivakumar, Arjun Singh, Neja Ramkumar and Nikhil Balaji also claimed a national title. The conference ran May 6-10 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center during BPA’s 60th anniversary year, putting Rockwall students in the same field as some of the strongest business, technology and digital media competitors in the country.

Rockwall ISD also said the chapter produced several other national finalists. The Network Design Team placed second, Software Engineering Team 2 placed second, another Software Engineering Team placed fourth, the 2D Animation Team placed sixth and the Small Business Management Team placed seventh. Those events measure the practical skills that matter in the academy’s career and technical education pipeline: design work, coding, networking, digital media production and business decision-making.

The district credited advisors Misty Rayson, Naposhi Amos, Jeff Burkam and Marcia Eddy for guiding students through countless hours of preparation. The academy says its student organizations are built to develop leadership, service learning and career exploration skills, and BPA gives students a competitive setting to practice those abilities in front of judges who evaluate business-ready work.

The Nashville results also fit a stronger pattern for the Rockwall County program. In 2025, 20 GBCCA BPA students competed among nearly 7,000 students at the national conference in Orlando. In 2024, 21 students represented the academy at nationals in Chicago, where 6,400 students from 26 states and three countries took part. At the regional conference in Mesquite on Jan. 17, 2026, 37 GBCCA BPA members competed among more than 700 students from 15 chapters, and 31 advanced to state in Dallas.

For Rockwall families weighing high school pathways, the sweep in Nashville shows more than a trophy case. It points to a pipeline that is producing students with the technical, presentation and problem-solving skills that can carry into college study, industry certifications, internships and entry-level roles in business and technology.