Wayland High School had seven students place and six qualify for state at the Business Professionals of America regional competition Tuesday at Lake Michigan College.

More than 400 business professionals took part in the conference to demonstrate business management, marketing, and technology skills, network with others, and to be honored for their hard work. Twelve members of the Wayland High School chapter of Business Professionals of America participated in the conference.

Nicole Damveld placed first in legal office procedures and Marina Marchesotti was fourth; Bri Cronk was second in personal finance management concepts and third in banking and financing; Trenton Moore was third in web site design team; Sydney Urben was third in fundamental work processing; Hailey Carpenter third in web design team and fourth in fundamental desk top publishing, and Ali Martus fourth in fundamental spreadsheet applications.

These students will represent Wayland at the 2016 State Leadership Conference March 18-20 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, where they will compete with students from across Michigan, attend workshops designed to aid in professional development and gain skills for their lives ahead in the world of work. Top students at the state conference will advance to the National Leadership Conference in Boston in May.

Business Professionals of America is a national career/technical student organization for business students on the high school and college levels with more than 54,000 members across the country. The organization strives to prepare a world-class workforce through the advancement of leadership, citizenship, academic, and technological skills.

PHOTOS: Participants in the regional BPA conference were (bottom to top): Bri Cronk, Samantha Sager, Marina Marchesotti, Nicole Damveld, Sydney Urben, Hailey Carpenter, Trenton Moore, Gerrit Fuller, Zachary Rybiski and Jeremy Pletcher. Not pictured is Ali Martus.

Regional BPA competition winners were (from left) Hailey Carpenter, Trenton Moore, Bri Cronk, Sydney Urben, Marina Marchesotti, and Nicole Damveld. Not pictured: Ali Martus.

(Photos courtesy of Laurie Zywiczynski)