Students from all over Illinois will be gathering in Oak Park from March 4-6 to compete in events involving finance, management, IT and computer applications –activities people in the working class do daily. Business Professionals of America (BPA) is a club at LT that does just that and will be sending 42 students to this state competition.

“We have done really great [so far this season],” advisor Julie Bryar-Smith said. “The kids [and] their projects are really fantastic.”

After sending 89 kids to regionals with 42 advancing to state, LT BPA is hopeful to reach nationals, Bryar-Smith said.

“Since several of our members earned first place in their events, I believe we could easily have more people moving onto nationals this year compared to last year,” BPA secretary Chase Kwit ‘16 said.

In years past, BPA has had between 10 to 15 members that qualify for nationals, advisor Krista Wilcox said. However, this success is not easy to come by because it requires a lot of hard work, effort and time.

“The [students] that stand out are the ones that really put in that extra effort and go above and beyond,” Bryar-Smith said. “[They] have done work outside of the meetings, practiced on their own, and taken old tests that BPA has available.”

To get extra practice for their event, many students find and use the resources around them.

“[The students] talk to experts in the field they’re interested in,” Byrar-Smith said. “We brought in a banker [and] he knew commercial banking so he could help kids with their business plans and things like that.”

While the team is working hard with their projects and categories, they also have to look out for challenging competitors.

“I believe our toughest competitor this year will be Hinsdale Central,” Kwit said. “They have taken first place in the majority of the events and have dominated several events and categories.”

Although Hinsdale Central appears to be very strong, LT BPA also has it strengths, Byrar-Smith said.

“We have had a lot of success recently in computer programming,” Bryar-Smith said. “We have a lot of students [also] in the Microsoft application competition and the new event, personal financing.”

These categories like personal financing and computer programming not only allow students to compete for the pride of their school, but it can also help them plan ahead.

“We gain real business experience that can lead us on the path of our future careers,” Kwit said.