Fifteen Wayland High School students placed in the regional business leadership conference Tuesday and qualified to represent their school at the state level in March.

The competition included more than 300 who descended on Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor to demonstrate business management, marketing and technology skills, network with others, and be honored for their work.

Seventeen student members of the Wayland Union High School Chapter of Business Professionals of America took part in the event.

Winners included:

• Taylor Geers, second place, Administrative Support Team, third,  Fundamental Spreadsheet Applications.

• Anna Smith, second,  Administrative Support Team, second, Fundamental Spreadsheet Applications

• Grace Reurink, second, Administrative Support Team, third, Presentation Management Individual.

• Trenton Moore, first, Presentation Management Individual, second, Administrative Support Team.

• Amber Beggs, first, Economic Research Project Individual, second, Global Marketing Team, second, Business Meeting Management Concepts.

• Mitchell VanderMeer, first, Financial Analyst Team.

• Kayd Hulst, first, Financial Analyst Team.

• Connor Geers, first, Financial Analyst Team.

• Chris Janz, first, Financial Analyst Team.

• Emily Thompson, first, Fundamental Word Processing Skills, first, Fundamental Desktop Publishing.

• McCann Aten, second, Global Marketing Team.

• Gage Gruver, second, Global Marketing Team.

• Mackenzie Banas, first, Business Meeting Management Concepts, second, Global Marketing Team.

• Camber Barko, second, Prepared Speech.

• Michelle Zheng, first, Fundamental Spreadsheet Application.

These 15 students will represent Wayland at the 2018 State Leadership Conference on March 16-18 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, held in Dallas, Texas in May. 

Business Professionals of America is a national career/technical student organization for business students on the high school and college levels with over 54,000 members across the country.

(Photo courtesy of Nicki Cardosa)