by Chris Jones ·
Friday, May 29, 2026
The Bromfield School chapter of the Business Professionals of America (BPA) attended the 60th annual National Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, from May 6 to 10 to compete in over 70 real-world business events. Of the 54 Bromfield students who attended, five finished in the top 10 of their specific event at a conference that invites 3,500 to 4,000 high schoolers nationwide.
The team of Ashlyn Mara, Sabine Moran, and Megha Nookala made the stage (top 10 finish) for their virtual submission in the Social Media Marketing category. Their project involved the marketing strategy behind a hypothetical food truck. That same team, plus senior Josh Pelak, returned to the stage in the Presentation Team category for the same project. Finally, junior Gigi Benway finished in the top 10 for her virtual submission in the Computer Modeling category. Benway created a role-playing character using the software program Blender.
To attend the national conference, a student or team of students must first qualify by placing in the top three at the state BPA conference. A top-three finish guarantees an invitation to nationals. Faculty advisor Cindy Fontaine said, “At states, you compete against 10 teams, whereas at nationals you might compete against 40, and the level of competition is much higher.”
BPA offers six main assessment areas, and students may choose the area in which they wish to compete. The areas include finance and accounting; business administration; management administration systems; digital communication and design; management, marketing, and communication; and health administration.
Benway, a first-time participant who competed in the area of digital communication and design, earned second place at the state conference and a ticket to nationals. She figured it took her 40 hours to create the role-playing character along with a backstory, and then another five hours to create the presentation: “I had to figure out the Blender program myself and used a lot of YouTube tutorials. No one else knew about computer modeling software.”
The number of hours outside of class that Benway invested in her project isn’t unusual for Bromfield BPA members. Fontaine said, “[As a club] we meet for half an hour every week, and we put as much into that time as we can, but some schools, such as a career and technical education school, commit much more time to projects.” Sometimes, these projects can be part of a class, but Bromfield doesn’t have that luxury.
Although Benway didn’t make the podium at the national conference, she was very pleased with the overall experience: “Most people were probably surprised I did so well at BPA because it sounds very academic, and I feel that I’m not as academically prosperous as some of my peers. I’m not good at taking tests, but I have a very creative sense of mind and can pick things like that up quickly.” For Benway, the Nashville conference was a place to shine and learn. “It’s really cool to see people do real-world business things, and the entire experience was mind-opening. I wouldn’t know anything about computer modeling if I hadn’t joined BPA, and now it’s a part of my life. I learned a lot.”
Bromfield didn’t return from Tennessee with many awards, but Fontaine pointed out that for many of the 54 students, this was their first trip to the national conference, and experience helps with success. And for Fontaine, making the podium isn’t really the objective. “It’s not all about winning. Students present their work and learn so much, which is why we keep taking kids to nationals,” she said.