Indiana State University Newsroom

STUDENT HONORS: All seven of ISU's students attending the recent state Business Professionals of America (BPA) competition at Ivy Tech's Sellersburg campus qualified for nationals in Orlando later this year. Pictured are (front, from left): Rachel Williams, Amanda Willis, and Becky Milner; and (back, from left): Ritchie Hand, Dustin Bratton, Brandon Haston and Jonathan Clark. Kelly Wilkinson is faculty advisor for ISU's chapter, which is now in its second year.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State University has a new Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter, and it sure has started off on the right foot.

Seven students from the ISU chapter participated in state competition, and all seven qualified for national competition. These top students will now have the opportunity to attend the BPA 2006 National Leadership Conference, "Make Your Mark," in Orlando, Fla., May 10-14.

In Orlando, ISU chapter members Ritchie Hand, Dustin Bratton, Brandon Haston, Jonathan Clark, Rachel Williams, Amanda Willis, and Becky Milner will join more than 5,000 other conference delegates from across the nation. While there, they will participate in national-level business skill competitions, workshops, general sessions and national officer candidate campaigns and elections.

BPA is a national organization for high school, college and middle school students preparing for careers in business and information technology occupations. At the collegiate level, BPA provides leadership, professional learning, and networking opportunities, and membership is open to students from all program areas in the College of Business.

At the state competition, which took place last month at the Ivy Tech campus in Sellersburg, ISU students competed against the likes of Indiana University, Purdue University, Oakland City University, Vincennes University and Ivy Tech, among others.

"The conference will be the culmination of a school year's worth of business workforce education and training our students have received," said Kelly Wilkinson, ISU's chapter advisor and assistant professor of business education, information, and technology (BEIT) at Indiana State.

Wilkinson said students from ISU's chapter qualified for nationals last year also, but did not have the funding to attend. She and the students are working now to raise the $5,000 to $6,000 needed to cover costs for the Orlando competition in May.

"As a new organization, ISU's chapter has been incredibly successful in competing at the state level and we hope to continue a winning tradition at nationals," she said.

For more about ISU's BPA chapter, contact Wilkinson at (812) 237-2077 or bewilkin@isugw.indstate.edu. For more about the national BPA organization, go to www.bpa.org.

BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS OF AMERICA:
ISU Chapter Winners

Amanda Willis - junior from Springport, Ind.

- 1st -Integrated Office Application

- 1st -Administrative Support Team

Becky Milner - junior from Terre Haute, Ind.

- 1st -Advanced Word Processing Skills

- 2nd -Integrated Office applications

Dustin Bratton - freshman from Cayuga, Ind.

- 1st -Presentation Management

- 1st -Administrative Support Team

- 2nd -Graphic Design Promotion

Rachel Williams - freshman from Bridgeport, Ill.

- 4th -Fundamental Word Processing Skills

- 4th -Financial Math and Analysis

Ritchie Hand - freshman from Washington, Ind.

- 1st -Computer Network Technology

- 2nd -Novell Network Administration

- 5th -Information Technology Concepts

Jonathan Clark - sophomore from McCordsville, Ind.

- 1st -Interview Skills

- 1st -Administrative Support Team

- 2nd -Prepared Speech

Brandon Haston - junior from Avon, Ind.

- 1st -Desktop Publishing

- 1st -Administrative Support Team

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CONTACT: Kelly Wilkinson, Business Education, Information, and Technology, Indiana State University, (812) 237-2077 or

WRITER: Maria Greninger, associate director, Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, (812) 237-4357 or m-greninger@indstate.edu