On Tuesday February 5, 2019 Kings students attended the 2019 Region 17 Business Professionals of America awards ceremony at Springboro High School.

Competing in and qualifying for state in each category, Kings Students participated in Computer Network Technology, PC Servicing and Troubleshooting, Fundamental Desktop Publishing, Graphic Design Promotion, Digital Publishing, Digital Media Production, Computer Modeling, Video Production Team, Website Design Team, Computer Animation Team, Broadcast News Production Team, Global Marketing Team, and Digital Marketing Concepts.

The Kings AP Digital Media Arts program is continuing on in seven of the nine categories entered.

Teacher Kelly Shields has played a key role in advancing students in the competition since her first year teaching at Kings.

“I think BPA is a really unique opportunity for students to see what it might be like to do something like this as a career because they are working for a client,” Shields explained. “They have to try to present to land the job. It creates an environment that simulates an internship or what it might look like to work in a creative field.”

Student of Kelly Shields, and finalist, Erin Seccia is part of The News Broadcasting Production Team and will be continuing on to the 2019 state competition.

“Being up there on stage was sort of overwhelming. I was confident in our production and was expecting to place well, at least in the top three. It was incredibly nerve-wracking, because only the first place team in our event was going to move on to state competition.”

Seccia completed her project in just under a month alongside her partners Kevin Lewis, Anna-Claire Barker, and Tim Bredemeier.

“When they announced that we’d won, it was incredible. I was absolutely thrilled, because I knew that our final product had turned out really great, and I was going to be a little disappointed in the judges if they overlooked that!”

Because presentations were made on January 26, the judges had ample time to commit to their scores, and send feedback.

“The judge told us that she felt like she was watching BBC morning news when she watched our broadcast, so that made us feel great about our odds during our presentation.”

Students who advanced will be competing in the state competition on March 14 and 15 with the hopes of going to the national competition.

“I think we have a pretty good shot at moving on to the national competition, given the strength of our stories and our anchors,” Seccia said.  “Our stories work well together and give the viewer something interesting to watch.”