The Mountainair High School’s Business Professionals of America program cleaned up at a recent regional competition, qualifying all 22 who attended for the state competition in February.
“Every single one of them placed to go to state,” said Linda Modgling, director of the program that she started at the school in the 2018-19 school year.
“If I could say one or two words about this group it is that they are self-driven,” she said. “All of them. They don’t have classes in these particular areas and they study on their own. If I can’t find a mentor for them, they are on their own.”
The group took home six first-place medals: Marcus Brown in Payroll Accounting, and he added a third in Personal Financial Management; Briley DeFrates in Banking & Finance, and she added a fourth place Legal Office Procedures; Rosemary Gutierrez in Medical Coding and she added a fifth place in Health Insurance & Medical Billing; Aaliyah Roybal in Prepared Speech and Adora Overholser in Python Programming.
Additionally, Luke Ochoa took first in Business Law & Ethics and was part of the second-place Podcast Production Team that also included Jeremy Oliver and Paul Torres.
The Law & Ethics competition was basically a test that Ochoa said he crammed for almost like it was a final.
“The whole process was a I stayed up late, running all the practice tests,” Ochoa said. “I guess it paid off.”
Putting together the podcast project was far more interesting, he said, because it involved a group effort and was something none of them had done before.
“It was pretty much the three of putting it together,” he said. “We just recorded a podcast and had to do the video editing. It was about AI (artificial intelligence). And we talked about how that affected the workforce and students.”
Ochoa, who would like to own and operate his own business someday like his mother does, said joining the BPA has been helpful and is looking forward to that.
‘I think it is important information to know so if I start my own company, definitely want to know the proper way to do business,” he said. “I felt like signing up and it was interesting. I just wanted to see what I could do.”
Strong performances also were turned in by Janelle Potts, who was third in Legal Office Procedures and part of the Parliamentary Procedure team that took second, and Jordan Hendricks, who was second in Legal Office Procedures and also part of the Parliamentary Procedure team that also included Cartrell Smith, Carlos Archuleta, Ashley Varela and Omahne Nieto.
It is Hendricks’ second year in the program and she’s enjoyed it because Hendricks said she envisions owning her own restaurant someday.
Hendricks also participates in FFA and the 4H, but BPA is more aligned with her long-term ambitions.
“For me, I want to own my own business,” she said. “What I found out is that the BPA is focused more on the business aspect. And that would be better for me with what my goals are in the future. I would like to own my own restaurant or something of that sort because I enjoy cooking or baking and that would be a good way to give back to my community.”
The competition helps sharpen those skills where students may be lacking and for Hendricks, she said it was communication, which is why the group project was so rewarding.
“I was able to learn better communication skills,” she said., “I’m one of those people who have a hard time with that so this really helped with those communication skills that are so vital.”
Last year, 10 Mountainair students made it to the national competition and Modgling is confident that this year’s group will surpass that total.
“They like having another niche to go to besides sports and FFA,” she said in explaining the program’s success.