Front row: Kate Lawson, Kelle Vandaveer, Shauna Foster, Melinda McConnell, Yvonne Brown, Kyle Smith. Back row: Troy Gardner, Andrew Nowlin, Jason Jensen, Bryan Sharp, Carol Goff, Terri Stone



Ten students from Pioneer Technology Center were among the 4,000 CareerTech students who participated in the Business Professionals of America (BPA) State Leadership Conference held March 10th and 11th, 2009. The event was held over two days at OSU-Okmulgee and ORU Mabee Center - Tulsa.
BPA is one of seven CareerTech student organizations in Oklahoma with memberships totaling more than 100,000 high school and adults students. Other student organizations and programs the CareerTech system supports include: HOSA, health occupations education; FFA, agricultural education; SkillsUSA-VICA, trade and industrial education; DECA, marketing education, and FCCLA, family careers and community leaders association.
Gina Hubbard, state BPA advisor, said that students competed in 55 events including categories such as computer network technology, database management, advanced office Network, payroll accounting and computer security as well as Microsoft Network Administration and CISCO Network Administration.
Gina Hubbard stated, “Competing in these events is a great way for students to make practical use of the skills they learn in the classroom”.
The conference concluded with an awards ceremony at ORU Mabee Center. All ten students from Pioneer Technology Center placed in the top ten. Bryan Sharp, senior at Tonkawa High School, placed 2nd in Microsoft Network Administration and 5th in CISCO Network Administration. Yvonne Brown, an adult student from Blackwell, placed 2nd in Microsoft Network Administration and 3rd in CISCO Network Administration. Jason Jensen, an adult student from Ponca City, placed 1st in Microsoft Network Administration, 2nd in C++ Programming and 5th in Financial Math and Analysis. Andrew Nowlin, a senior at Ponca City High School, placed 1st in Microsoft Network Administration, Computer Security, and in Information Technology Concepts as well as 4th in Computer Network Technology. Melinda McConnell, an adult student from Ponca City, placed 3rd in Database Applications. Shauna Foster, an adult student from Ponca City, placed in the top ten for Fundamentals of Word Processing. Troy Gardner, an adult student from Ponca City, placed in the top ten for Cisco Network Administration. Kyle Smith, a junior at Ponca City High School, placed in the top 10 for Payroll Accounting. Kelle Vandaveer, a senior at Woodlands High School, and Kate Lawson, a senior at Newkirk High School, placed 4th in the Presentation Management - Team Event. Advisors Carol Goff and Terri Stone, as well Dale Goodwin, the director for the Business and Information Technology Education program at Pioneer Technology Center stated, “We were very proud of how these young men and women represented us at this year’s State Leadership Conference for BPA; both in their competitions as well as their general professionalism in the midst of 4,000 other student”.
Melinda McConnell, Jason Jensen, Yvonne Brown, Bryan Sharp and Andrew Nowlin as well as advisor Carol Goff will be representing Pioneer Technology Center at the BPA National Leadership Conference in Dallas, Texas in May 2009. The awards assembly concluded with the installation of a new slate BPA state officers for the 2009-10 school year.