Thirty-four students from Naperville Central competed at Business Professionals of America (BPA) State. The event was hosted in Oakbrook and took place from Feb. 23 to Feb. 25. 

Ten Central students qualified for BPA’s National Leadership Conference at the competition. 

“BPA is a competitive business club where students can compete in a wide variety of events,” BPA advisor Brad Neubauer said. “Those events can range from presentations to making videos. There’s upwards of 80 to 90 different events that the students can choose from.”

Central’s competitors qualified for state by placing highly in their event at an area competition among District 203 and District 204 schools.

“We had 60-70% of our members go to State,” Neubauer said.

Junior Harry Yu qualified in both of his coding events, each which had more than 30 competitors at state.

“I was top five in each event,” Yu said. “It’s a very pleasant surprise, and [I’m] pretty happy about it.”

Students at state also participated in BPA sponsored activities, which included a raffle and banquet.

“The banquet was pretty fun,” Yu said. “I definitely say it’s worthwhile. It’s a good experience.”

Nationals will take place in Anaheim, California from April 25-30.