Prairie High School Students Receive National Recognition

Cedar Rapids Prairie High School's Business Professionals of America members arrived at the Cedar Rapids Airport Sunday, May 9th from Anaheim carrying a lot of hardware. Not just the technical kind, but the kind that indicates top recognition in their competitions. The group of 19 students represents Prairie's strongest showing ever. “Their ability to compete at this level is a direct result of the time, effort and energy invested in preparing for the national competition,” said BPA Advisor Joan Cochrane. “Each student experienced the direct correlation between classroom learning, skill-building and future career benefits.”

To qualify for this prestigious National Leadership Conference, these students placed either first, second or third in their events at the state level among a pool of 400 contestants. “School districts from across the nation sent 5,000 of their very best to Anaheim,” said BPA Advisor Kim Hynek. "Developing and honing 21st Century Skills are crucial components for preparing students for post-secondary learning." Prairie's team of Annie Hills, Adam Nelson, and Nicole Morrow placed 3rd out of 30 in the Small Business Management Team event. Juniors Evan Cruise, Ian Tucker, and Eric Allard placed 2nd out of 27 teams in the Financial Analyst Team event. Evan Cruise stole the show, bringing home a national championship in Advanced Accounting, a second place with his Financial Analyst Team and a third place in a Marketing, Management and Human Resource Concepts open-event. “We are thrilled to be able to qualify for this level, let alone place like we did,” added Hynek. National qualifiers and attendees included; Eric Allard, Nakita Beck, Evan Cruise, Joe Dallago, Derek Dozier, Andy Erenberger, Jade Gudenkauf, Annie Hills, Jessica Jakoubek, David Meyers, Nichole Morrow, Adam Nelson, Sierra Phillip, Apisara Sriphan, Autumn Stensland, Holly Stepanek, Amanda Tharp, Ian Tucker and Andrew Williams.

Business Professionals of America is a leading organization for students pursuing careers in business management, executive administration, informational technology and various other fields. Prairie High School's chapter was initially chartered in 1998 with 5 members. Currently Prairie's membership includes 59 of which 35 contestants qualified in 29 events at the state leadership conference in February. There were 19 students who attended the national conference bringing home eight national level placements.