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Blazing New Trails is not only the theme for the 2009-10 Business Professionals of America school year but exactly what Chisago Lakes students are doing. BPA is a student organization that promotes real world business skills. It also is committed to providing students with a variety of social and community activities to enhance their learning. Nationally BPA has over 50,000 members from about 30 states of high school and post secondary students. Three states have started a middle school division.

Competition is one part of the organization. It tests and challenges students in a variety of skills used in business. Chisago Lakes students start at a region level in January competing against nine other schools. The winners advance to state competition in March. The National Leadership Conference is usually in May but due to the H1N1 outbreak, it was rescheduled for June. This year's National Leadership Conference was held in Dallas, Texas.

Rebecca Lawrence just completed her junior year and her second year of BPA. Lawrence is the only CL student to place in the top five of her competition at the state level for two consecutive years and participate at nationals. This year, she competed in Fundamental Word Processing using Microsoft Office 2007 to produce a variety of business documents using correct formatting and a multitude of functions.

Amy Quint completed her junior year and her first year of BPA. Quint won her regional and state competition and placed second at nationals. She competed in the Fundamental Spreadsheet contest using Microsoft Excel 2007. She needs exceptional math and computer skills to place this well in the contest.

Rebecca Schmidt graduated this year, ending her four years of participating in BPA. This year she earned the Torch Award at the national level. It is a community service and BPA leadership/participation award. Only one percent of the national members earned this award. Schmidt had to earn points in nine different areas. She has been very active and dedicated to BPA by being a leader and helping others.

BPA is open to all high school students. It consists of competition, community service and club activities.

A special thank you goes out to this year's community sponsors, Chisago Lakes Lions Club, Plastics Products Corp Inc, Rotary Club, and Security State Bank of Marine.

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