Seven local students are visiting Columbus to compete in workplace skills contests at Business Professionals of America’s State Leadership Conference.

“Our area, Region 16, is a quite competitive, so anyone who has advanced to State should be proud of his or her accomplishment” said Mrs. Lisa Sheppard, BPA advisor. “It takes a great deal of knowledge or a lot of hard work for the students to win these events.” Sheppard is accompanying the students to the State Leadership Conference.

Brent Holtevert from New Knoxville will be competing in Visual Basic/C# Programming. Hannah Evers from Fort Recovery and Jared Naviello from New Knoxville will both be competing in Fundamentals of Web Design. Jack Bohman from Marion Local will be presenting his business plan in the Entrepreneurship competition. Dylan Gilbert from Celina is competing in Fundamental Accounting, and Paige Hemmert from Fort Recovery is competing in Payroll Accounting. Toby Drexler from Celina will be competing in Advanced Spreadsheet Applications. The students at the conference are enrolled in Tri Star's Interactive Media Program or in Business Management.

Winners at the state level competition will be eligible to advance to national competition, held during the National Leadership Conference, in Orlando, Florida in May.

Photo: Left to right. Back row: Toby Drexler, Brent Holtevert, Jared Naviello, Hannah Evers
Front Row: Dylan Gilbert, Paige Hemmert, Jack Bohman