By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

While school programming and extracurriculars have sent New York Mills High School students all of the county, state and nation this spring, three members of the school’s Business Professionals of America (BPA) team attended the National Leadership Conference this past week.

Students in BPA participated in the regional contest first, where they competed against 13 schools in the area and placed in the top seven before moving on to the state Leadership Conference where they competed against around 1,500 students. To place for the National Conference, a top five placement was needed.

High school seniors Lucy Wallgren, daughter of Jake Wallgren and Amy Wallgren; Brienna Honer, daughter of Aaron and Sarah Honer; and junior Aubree Salo, daughter of Jaime Kopveiler and Aaron Salo, left in the early hours of Wednesday morning to attend the National Conference with coach and business teacher, Mike Bauck.

“They’ve put in a lot of hard work, they’re really good students and they deserve to go,” said Bauck. “Their hard work and efforts have paid off, it’s very competitive and they’re able to be in the very top.”

Honer is returning to Nationals after placing in Payroll Accounting and Advanced Accounting last year. She competed in the same events again this year. Now in her third year of BPA, she enjoyed seeing the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville, Tenn., as well as spending time with her classmates.

“I like meeting all the different people from the different grades in BPA, because we’re always kind of put together,” she said.

Wallgren is in her first year of BPA and competed in Payroll Accounting at Nationals this year. She enjoyed the food in Nashville, as well as traveling across the nation with her friends.

Salo is in her third year of BPA, beginning as a Freshman and competed in Integrated Office Applications at the National Conference.

The NY Mills High School BPA team has grown significantly over the past three years under Bauck’s leadership. When he began teaching in NY Mills three years ago, there wasn’t anyone participating in the longtime program. In the past three years, that number has risen to 30 members.

“When I started here three years ago, it went from zero members to 30 now,” said Back. “In the very first year, we didn’t have anyone make it to nationals, last year we had one, and this year we have three.

“I’m looking forward to getting to meet with other business teachers and be able to network and obviously to help the girls do well in their competitions, seeing them do all that,” he continued. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the girls stack up against students in the whole nation and I think they’ll do good—I’m hoping for top 10 finishes for all three of them.”