Redhawks in the club Business Professionals of America will compete in the Area 1, Region 3 Regional Leadership Conference Saturday but the typically in-person event will take place virtually via Webex.

“Everything has moved to an online platform,” BPA advisor JoAnn Leung said via email. “Typically, it starts very early and ends quite late with the awards assembly happening the same day. However, it’s different this year due to Covid. Certain events require students to be on live video while they take a content test, or they may have to answer questions from judges. The awards assembly will be moved to a different day this year since it’s not feasible for all the grading to be done the same day this year.”

Redhawks are told to reserve the entire day for the RCL as they compete in events such as Banking & Finance, Personal Financial Management, Business & Law Ethics, and Administrative Support Team.

“As someone doing the C# coding event, to prepare for Saturday’s conference I’m practicing with test materials from the past years to reinforce my knowledge on the topic that will be tested on Saturday,” officer, junior William Zhang said via messages. “I am also going through the procedures for the virtual conference to ensure everything goes smoothly. As an officer and participant in BPA, Covid has definitely created a lot of changes this year. In addition to shifting our meetings to virtual, we also had to resort to new ways to get information to our members. Furthermore, the procedures for the conference and competitions have also changed as they will shift to a virtual setting, becoming a new experience for all of us.”

Competitors with testing events will download their tests and complete them with their webcam on; other events will require students to submit videos of their presentations. If placed high enough [typically 1st- 4th place], students will advance to the State level to compete.

“I am going over tests from the past years for practice and looking over the Style and Reference Manuals provided by BPA which is what I will be tested on for my event — Advanced Office Systems and Procedures,” officer, senior Amber Cheng said via messages. “I enjoy getting to know all the young business professional individuals around the nation and get inspired by what they’re doing. I’m looking forward to the State and National Leadership Conference this year since they are most likely going to be virtual.”