Max Sanclemente and Carter Sharp share their first-place prize in the Podcast category at the Business Professionals of America State Competition earlier this month in Columbus. The duo are two of more than 30 students from the Delaware Area Career Center who qualified for the BPA National Leadership Conference in Chicago in May.
Logan Smutylo | Chapter Photographer
Thirty-four students from the Delaware Area Career Center are bound for the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference later this spring after earning top spots at the state conference earlier this month.
The state competition was held in Columbus and in order to qualify, BPA participants had to take one of the top three spots at a regional competition in February.
Several students at the DACC took first place at the state competition, including the team of Max Sanclemente and Carter Sharp, who earned the top spot in the Podcasting competition. The duo, seniors at Hayes High School in the Digital Design program at the DACC, explained that they had to create a 5-minute podcast about AI and said they worked for months to write the discussion points, include an interview, and write music for the show.
Sharp said last year’s topic was about Top 10 Songs of Year, and the tonal shift in topics made the team pivot in its approach.
“It was a lot more professional,” Sharp said. “There was a lot of writing for this one.”
The team said its presentation is called “Pandora’s Box” because AI is unable to be “put back in the box,” and it has a physical prop this year and other things to make its presentation stand out to the judges at the national competition.
“Last year the podcast was good, but the presentation was lacking, so this year we wanted to make sure the podcast and presentation are equally good,” Sharp said. “We’re trying to make sure the judges have something to remember us by. I feel confident in our ability to do what we need to do.”
Sanclemente said they are able to revise their projects between the state and national competitions, and he plans on making minor changes.
“I think everything we have is just about perfect,” Sanclemente said. “I just want to tweak the mixing to make it sound as crisp as possible. I’m happy we’re going to nationals. If nothing comes out of it, nothing comes out of it, and if we do place, we place.”
The pair added they plan to study audio production at Ohio University next year.
Liam Thomas and Skylar Brotman, seniors from Hayes studying at the DACC who took third place in the web design competition along with teammate Mckenzie Hoye, said they have real-life experience designing websites since they started their own web design business last year.
“We had the knowledge, but it’s obviously different when you have set of instructions instead of having free reign,” Thomas said. “(Our business) is about what the client wants instead of having a set list of things you are required to have.”
Brotman said they were “a little bit surprised” when they took third place at the state competition.
“We figured we would podium, but we were shocked at third place,” Thomas said. “We figured out why, there were a couple of issues we overlooked because we were stressed and felt rushed.”
The team said it would be tinkering with its website to make sure it’s as good as possible ahead of the national competition in May.
“It’s a lot more pressure, a lot more people, and everyone there is really, really good,” Thomas said. “I think if we can get everything settled and switched out, I think we’ll be just fine.”
Brotman said she’s looking forward to visiting Chicago again for the competition.
“I’m not so much nervous, I’m excited to get to Chicago,” Brotman said. “This is the whole reason I joined the competition.”
The BPA National Leadership Conference will be held May 10-14 in Chicago.
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.
