Sandpoint teen takes second at BPA nationals

SANDPOINT — To qualify for the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference, individual participants must place in the top five in their respective categories at the state level, and teams have to place in the top three.

Nine Sandpoint High School students qualified for nationals this year, with senior Ron Korn taking the podium for second place in Computer Network Technology.

"Qualifying for the BPANLC is an amazing accomplishment," said Alex Gray, Sandpoint High School instructor and career-technical education department chair. "I'm proud of each of the students for all of their hard work getting to there. Seeing and cheering on the students representing Sandpoint High on stage in front of 5,000 people is just icing on the cake."

Korn said the conference, which was held in Dallas, Texas, May 9-12, was his second trip to nationals with BPA. Last year the conference was held in Orlando, he said. 

"Winning second place in Computer Network Technology meant that I was the first of Mr. Gray's students to have stepped on the national podium," Korn said. "My first year just making it to nationals was cool, then my second year making it on the podium, that was really cool."

At state this year, he placed first and second respectively in Network Administration and Computer Network Technology. Prior to qualifying at state for the national conference, students competed on the regional level. To qualify for the state competition, single competitors had to place in the top three in the regional event, and teams had to place in the top two.

Korn has been involved in everything IT throughout high school, taking all of Gray's courses, involvement in CyberPatriot, interning in the Lake Pend Oreille School District's IT department, and more. He has also helped build planes in the North Idaho High School Aerospace's ACES Aviation Workshop and is well on his way to earning his pilot's license. Korn plans to attend University of Idaho in the fall to study mechanical engineering and computer science, and recently secured a job in their IT department as well.

Another of Gray's students, SHS senior Liam Loper, placed in the top ten for PC Servicing and Troubleshooting at nationals. Loper said he initially competed in three topics at the BPA regional competition — PC Servicing and Troubleshooting, Computer Security, and Computer Networking. For the state competition, the students choose two topics, so he picked PC Servicing and Troubleshooting and Computer Security as they were the ones he did best in regionally, he said. At state, he said, he took first place in PC Servicing and Troubleshooting, and second in Computer Security.

At nationals, he got seventh in PC Servicing and Troubleshooting and 19th in Computer Security, he said. This was Loper's first year competing in BPA, and looking back, he said he should have participated sooner.

"It is an experience that can't be replaced or ever forgotten," Loper said. "Qualifying and having the opportunity to attend a event such as a BPA conference and competition is unlike any other thing I will ever do. You get to meet people from other states and you also get to compete against your peers and fellow students from across the nation. It is a huge honor to be there to represent your school, community, and class academically. I would do it again if I was able to."

Loper said he has "long debated" on which degree and specific field in the IT industry he wanted to go into, and working at the East Bonner County Library and having Gray as a mentor and teacher has helped him narrow down what he wants to do in the future. Loper said he plans to attend North Idaho College for two years before moving onto Boise State University to earn a degree in computer information technology. 

"After that, I have no set plans for my education, but I imagine that I will always want to continue to learn more and more," he said.

SHS seniors Sarah Wilburn and Austin Iverson qualified for nationals as a team in the Administrative Support Team category. Wilburn said she has been to a state competition before, but this was her first trip to nationals.

"I loved it," Wilburn said. "I still feel like we did well, even know we didn't place."

At regionals, she said, she place in the top spots for Fundamental Accounting, Administrative Support Team and Integrated Office Applications. Since they can only choose two for state, she competed in Administrative Support Team and Integrated Office Applications, leading to her qualification for nationals.

Wilburn said she plans to get an associate's degree in accounting from North Idaho College to do the books, and eventually take over, her dad's music store in Sandpoint.

Iverson also competed in Integrated Office Applications and Administrative Support Team, as well as Intermediate Word Processing, at the regional level, dropping the latter for the state competition.

"This was my first year of BPA, so it was really exciting to get to go to nationals," Iverson said.

Iverson plans to attend UI in the fall to major in computer science.

While nine students qualified, eight of them attended the nationals conference in Dallas. Melinda Nieman, business technology instructor at SHS, said even though the students didn't take home as many medals as some of the students in recent years, they were all happy with how they did in the competition.

"For me it's really just the experience they had and their excitement over it all," Nieman said. "It was awesome for them."

The last SHS student to podium prior to Korn was Tyson Bird in 2014. A student in Will Love's journalism program, Bird took first at the national conference that year in Fundamentals of Desktop Publishing.

"He was our first national award winner of any kind, and then to get first in the nation is just amazing," Nieman said.

Not only did Bird get first place that year, he also set a precedent as the first student from SHS to even place in the top 10 at nationals.

"Since then we've always had someone in the top 10," Nieman said.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.