From April 29th to May 3rd , some members of the BPA team here at EHS will be traveling to the nationals tournament in Indianapolis. There is one group team and three individuals who will represent Eagan.

The individuals who will be competing are Junior Matt Brotzman, Senior Erik Hillesheim, and Sophomore Ridhima Mishra. The group team consists of Senior John Guggenberger, and Juniors Melanie Quick and Berit Hansen.

BPA stands for Business Professionals of America, a program here at EHS that allows students to get real world experience with business focused issues. Each kid on the team chooses whether to participate in team or individual events when they join BPA.

There are many options for events to participate in as a part of BPA. Some options include taking a test or giving a presentation that is completely business focused. For example, the group from Eagan traveling to Indianapolis is doing a project. They had to solve a problem as to how to transfer a successful box company in the United States to another country around the world. They had to write out the entire marketing plan for them, giving them group great hands on experience with the real world.

Junior, Berit Hanson, a member of this team, went more in depth about the project, ” We had to write a 10 page paper and come up with a power point or prezi to present. We spent sometimes 8 hours a day working on it.”

All of their hard work payed off. In order to qualify for nationals the team had to be one of the top three teams in regionals, they got first. They then went to state and had to be one of the top two in order to go to nationals. They got first once again, qualifying them for the nationals tournament in late April.

While it may sound like all work and no fun, Hanson insists that is not the case. “My favorite part is working with the team and the same group of people and not having to change your event. That way you can just [work on] improv[ing] it. Plus I like to go places.”

Best of luck to all of the Eagan representatives who will be heading to Indianapolis!