Twelve Taylor High School students in the Great Oaks Business Management satellite program and ten Diamond Oaks students will compete against other top students from around the state after winning at Region 1 Business Professionals of America (BPA) competition in January.

The Taylor High School students going to state competition are:  Jake Eberle, Scott Girdler, Sarah Hardtke, Sam Marco, Keegan McCarthy, Catie Meyer, Camilla Pascua, Mike Presnell, Pat Pyles, Sarah Schatzman, Tom Webb, and Chris Wright.

Diamond Oaks state qualifiers are Katie Boyle, Alexandra Crabtree, Dylan Dove, Jessica Dunaway, Nikki Hayden, Rob Kathmann, Zach King, Angel Lewis, Patricia Lipps, and Lindsay Rosey.

In BPA competition, students are given real-life business situations and must, individually or as a team, develop solutions and demonstrate their skills.  Categories cover a wide range of business applications including payroll accounting, interview skills, global marketing, human resources, economic research, and other areas.

Students typically had limited time to assess an issue and develop a plan.  For example, the small business management teams were presented with the challenge of taking a 1950s Lake Tahoe resort hotel and creating a new image, niche, and market for the property.

Students said that the competition was intense.  “I know for a fact that when my teammates and I started this project we never thought that we would get this far, but now that we are going to state we will do our best to represent our school and our city,” said Chris Wright.

“The most stressful part of the competition was the wait from presentation time to the award ceremony,” said senior Sam Marco.  “You think you did well but you just don’t know, so all you think about while waiting is ‘Did I cover everything?  Did I make it?'"

Other students from Taylor High School’s Great Oaks program and from the Diamond Oaks campus also fared well in the regional BPA competition.  A complete list of top finishers:

From Diamond Oaks:

Graphic Design Promotion-Interactive Multimedia—Alexandra Crabtree (1^st), Larry Cox (2^nd), Ali Soult (3^rd), Toni Sulken (4^th), Carlos Jones (5^th)

Video Production Team--Alyssa Evans, Kindra Ehrat, Paige Norris (2^nd place team)

PC Servicing—Rob Kathmann (1^st), Dylan Dove (2^nd), Zach Shepherd (3^rd), Michael Mullins (5^th)

Security Concepts—Zach King (1^st)

Information Technology Concepts--Rob Kathmann & Dylan Dove (1^st place tie), Zach Shepherd (2^nd), Jaymes Wiles (3^rd), Michael Mullins (4^th), David Merritt (5^th)

Presentation Management Team  --Shawn Collins, Shane Beck (3^rd place team)

Extemporaneous Speech-Business Management & Admin—Nikki Hayden (1^st), Brian Runyon (2^nd)

Keyboarding Production—Patricia Lipps (1^st), Katie Boyle (2^nd)

Fundamental Word Processing—Jessica Williams (5^th)

Advanced Word Processing—Lindsay Rosey (1^st), Jessica Dunaway (2^nd)

Desktop Publishing—Angel Lewis (2^nd)

Fundamental Accounting—Nikki Hayden (4^th)

Payroll Accounting—Daniel Linz (5^th)

Interview Skills—Monica Anderson (5^th), Jada Andrade (6^th)

Medical Office Procedures—Justin Strayhorn (1^st)

From Taylor High School:

Presentation Management Team--Sam Marco and Scott Girdler (1^st)

Presentation Management Individual--Catie Meyer (1^st), Keegan McCarthy (3^rd)

Small Business Management Team--Keegan McCarthy and Catie Meyer (1^st);  Caitlin Laricca, Shannon Corbett, Amy Bohrer (2^nd); Aaron Rensing, Aaron Sykes, Alex Reis (4^th)

Global Marketing Team--Sarah Hardtke and Sarah Schatzman (1^st); Amber Hellebusch, Rachael Buzek, Emily Loring (2^nd); Scott Pahren, Ryan Looney, Ryan Engels (3^rd); Sean Ashcraft, Rachael Wood, Nathan Bailey, Matt Blauvelt (4^th)

Human Resources Management--Jake Eberle (1^st); Amber Hellebusch (3^rd)

Economic Research Team--Pat Pyles, Mike Presnell, Chris Wright (1^st)

Economic Research Individual--Camilla Pascua (1^st)

Administrative Research Individual--Sarah Hardtke (2^nd)

Basic Office Systems--Zach Creemer (1^st)

Website Design Team--Trisha Hubbard and Jessica Huckaby (2^nd)

Payroll Accounting--Chris Schweikert (3^rd)

Desktop Publishing--Tony Grant (3^rd)

Entrepreneurship­­--Tom Webb (1^st)