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In late April, students involved in BV Business went across the county to participate in National and International competitions for Business Professionals of America (BPA) and DECA. After having a successful year placing first at state for both organizations, it was time to go to the next level of competition. Junior Kate Kozlowski had the opportunity to go coast to coast with BV Business. 

“I qualified [and placed second at DECA State] in two events, but the one I took was Apparel and Accessories Marketing, which is a case based on clothes and accessories and I have to present it to a judge on how to market it effectively.”

Despite how Kozlowski felt about her role play performance, her hard work paid off successfully.

“I ended up getting third in the world, which is very exciting. There were around 175 in my event, so I had to make finals. So I made top 20, then I made top 10 and then I got third.”

After her accomplishment in Orlando, Kozlowski and the team of BPA national qualifiers then headed to Anaheim.

“I did Administrative Support Research Project and Presentation Management Team with Charlotte Warren for BPA,” Kozlowski said. “We didn’t make finals for our presentation, but I did make finals in Admin Support, and I ended up getting 5th.”

While she likes competing in the organizations, Kozlowski favors the structure of one more than the other. 

“Being in BPA, I like the variety of events you can do,” she said. “There’s not as many competitors in each event and there are more events, so it allows you to really pick what you want to do specifically rather than just find the general topic that you like.

Following the fun and chaos of Disney and Universal theme parks, competing and spending time with friends, she reflects on the most memorable parts of her two weeks away.

“Just being able to go to the theme parks was a lot of fun. I like the weather there a lot better than Kansas weather.” Kozlowski said. “But getting third is my favorite part [of the trip] because I got to go on stage and I got the glass, a big trophy, which was really great.”

Aside from the success of BV Business, Kozlowski has other advice for students intrigued by the clubs.

“I’m not necessarily interested in going into business past high school, but it definitely helped me develop a lot of speaking skills,” she said. “I’m now able to speak a lot better in front of a crowd and I’m not as nervous to do that. You even get to meet a ton of people and it looks good on a resume. So if you’re thinking about joining, you definitely should because it’s just a great experience and even if you don’t love it, you can just say that you did it and did more than other people do.”