Senior Nick Lovan placed second at the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference in Orlando May 10-14 in the Network Administration Using Microsoft competition.

“I’m very happy just because it’s a big improvement from last year,” Lovan said. “I was like 10th place and now I’m second in the nation.”

The national competition was held in Orlando and is aimed at developing students’ leadership acumen and business skills.

“The competition consisted of a test that I took and there was a bunch of questions about running windows in a business and tracking what files are being accessed,” Lovan said. “The test also included a certification exam, but I had already passed that, so I just had to do a BPA test.”

Lovan said that he has been working with computers for the majority of his life.

“There’s a picture of me when I was like two or three going on Dial Up,” Lovan said. “All the stuff I’ve been learning has been going towards my career and my future job.”

CTE teacher Kip Bledsoe says Lovan’s accomplishment is even more impressive than it may seem as most of the concepts in the contest were self-taught.

“We do not have a class that specifically teaches Server Administration for Microsoft networks, Bledsoe said via email reply. “Nicholas received some background knowledge from the Cisco Networking classes but he had to apply the concepts to the Microsoft platform.  He spent numerous hours studying and preparing for this contest.  As you can see, all of his hard work and dedication paid off.  I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished this year.”

Lovan also utilizes his skills outside of his class work and competitions.

“I had him help me with a video when my wife’s grandmother passed away and he did it all in about 15 minutes,” Lovan’s SAIL teacher, Steven Biehahn said. “He’s passionate about it and he even has tech companies wanting to interview him for employment.”