Barnum High School Students Learning Life Skills Through Business Organization

BARNUM, Minn. — February is Career and Technical Education or CTE Awareness Month and over at Barnum High School students are going above and beyond what they’re learning in the classroom.

Business Professionals of America is a student organization for 9th through 12th grade students. Students choose from around 60 events to compete in ranging from accounting, marketing, computer programming, and podcasting.

Students compete in a region competition and if they place high enough advance to state. 21 students have moved on to state this year. That is more students than Barnum has ever had.

The organization teaches them important skills.

“These students are taking tests on their knowledge of personal finance. They are presenting to judges in a very professional setting. So, they are working on a lot of their soft skills communication, problem solving, strategizing. Real life skills that they are gonna need definitely for their jobs and for the future,” said Kelly Bonitz, business teacher and BPA advisor.

BPA also creates amazing opportunities for students. Last year 2 girls took their podcast all the way to the West Coast.

“We made it to nationals, advanced to state then to nationals and we went to California, Anaheim, California to present our podcast there and that was one of the coolest opportunities and experiences I think both of us have ever done. Especially through school, we got to meet so many new people, be under a different atmosphere and it was amazing,” said Annaka Bogenholm, senior at Barnum High School.

Students in BPA will go to Minneapolis mid-March for the state competition. If they place high enough, they’ll advance to Chicago for nationals.