Given their chance to shine…they did.

Eight Chisholm Trail Technology Center digital technologies students qualifi ed for the state workplace skills assessment program and brought home their share of the top placings at the event held March 6-8 in Tulsa.

As part of the Business Professionals of America State Leadership Conference, CTTC students showcased their skills while competing against students from 29 CareerTech centers and other high schools throughout the state.

Participating in various categories, the students qualified by placing in the top 20 during an online test in February and, of those, five placed in the top eight at the state competition, CTTC digital technologies instructor Cindy Gruntmeir said.

“Our students really excelled at the event,” Gruntmeir added.

An integral part of BPA, the workplace skills assessment program provides business students the opportunity to demonstrate workplace skills learned through business education curricula such as the pro-grams at CTTC.

Its goal is to prepare them to succeed and the competition assesses real- world business skills and problem solving abilities in finance, management, IT and computer applications.

CTTC digital technologies students competed and placed in the following categories: Fundamental word processing - Heide Renteria (Watonga High School), third place; Gabby Cervantes (Dover High School), eighth place Fundamental spreadsheet applications - Dafne Rivera (Lomega High School) Fundamental desktop publishing - Gracie Melton (Dover High School), fourth place; Karla Gamez (Dover High School), fifth place; Leslie Carillo, (Hennessey High School) Payroll accounting - Julissa Fraire (Hennessey High School), fourth place Fundamental accounting - Jaiden Alexander (Watonga High School) As BPA’s showcase program, students have the opportunity to demonstrate their career skills at regional, state and national conferences, while also building their leadership abilities and strengthening the workforce.

“The competition is rewarding for our students,” Gruntmeir said.

“It reinforces that they can compete with the best students from other schools statewide.”