On October 26, 2017, Hillcrest High School’s Business Professionals of America class was able to attend the annual Area Leadership Conference held at the Odyssey Country Club. The theme for this upcoming Business Professionals of America Competition consists of the topic “Dream Bigger… Branch Outside Your World!”

To start off the morning, the leadership conference began with welcome regards by Amilee Dortanes from Rich East High School, which then lead into the Chapter President Introductions held by Michelle Aguilar and Nairee Williams from Tinley Park High School. The Chapter Presidents are Steven Sanchez from Bloom Trail High School, Chaniyah Johnson from Bremen High School, Imellisse Norris from Crete-Monee High School, Darlene Moore-Jones from Hillcrest High School, Magdalene Smith-Stephney from Oak Forest High School, Grace Oladapo and Autumn Swanson from Rich Central High School, Amilee Dorantes from Rich East High School, Justice Watkins from RIch South High School and Michelle Aguilar and Nairee Williams from Tinley Park High School.

Moving forward with the program, the Chapter Advisor Introductions were completed by Darlene Moore-Jones from Hillcrest High School. The Chapter Advisors are Ms. Bergeron from Bloom Trail High School, Mr. Slade from Bremen High School, Ms. Brown from Crete-Monee High School, Ms. Jett from Hillcrest High School, Ms. McSweeney from Oak Forest High School, Ms. Irvin from Rich Central High School, Mr. Shank from Rich East High School, Mr. Archbold from Rich South High School and Ms. Munoz from Tinley Park High School.

After the Chapter Advisor Introductions, the Business Professionals of America Pledge was taught to everyone who had attended the Area Leadership Conference: “We are in a spirit of friendship and goodwill as we prepare for careers in a world-class workforce. We work together to develop professionalism and leadership through Business Professionals of America and pledge our loyalty to our nation.”

Once everyone learned to pledge, we were introduced to our Keynote Speaker Mr. Peter Hostrawser by Justice Watkins from Rich South High School. Peter Hostrawser the Founder and Chairman of the OPRF School of Business, an innovative department within Oak Park and River Forest High School, in Oak Park, Illinois. Peter began his career as a business entrepreneur in the fields of Video Production and Business Consulting. In the OPRF School of Business, students are actively engaged in project-based learning which has led to a 25% increase in enrollment. Students in the OPRF School of Business have the opportunity to work collaboratively with companies like Coca-Cola, Hyatt, MTV, and Oracle. Peter has been in education for over 14 years and during that time achieved a M.Ed in School Leadership from Concordia University Chicago. He also has a B.A. in Journalism from Valparaiso University. He is a Golden Apple Finalist, currently serves on the Brookfield, Illinois Parks and Recreation Board as well as on the Oak Park and River Forest Chamber of Commerce Board.

Peter Hostrawser believes that high-quality business education is the key to success for any student. His mission is to give high school students the power to become creative problem solvers as they learn to adapt to certain change. His passion in life is to redesign high schools around students in order to motivate them to do the important work of becoming productive citizens and, ultimately, future business owners.

After Mr. Peter Hostrawser spoke to us about empowering others and explaining the deeper meaning of our competition theme “Dream Bigger…Branch Outside Your World!” we had an Invocation led by Imellisse Norris from Crete-Monee High School.

Breakfast included eggs, bacon, roasted potatoes, waffles, fruit and several types of juice. Yum!

After breakfast, everyone participated in a Leadership Group Activity presented by Chaniyah Johnson from Bremen High School. For the leadership group activity, each table was assigned a bag full of random art supplies, either a plate or a cup and scissors. Each table had to come up with a visual representation of the theme “Dream Bigger… Branch Outside Your World!” with the supplies given to them.

In the end, everyone had turned out to be a true winner of the group activity as everyone had showed excellent visual representations of the theme. After the Leadership Group Activity, Grace Oladapo and Autumn Swanson from Rich Central introduced the Business Professionals of America Emblem explaining what each symbol represented.

Finally, to close the leadership conference, the torch ceremony was performed by Oak Forest High School and introduced by Magdalene Smith-Stephney from Oak Forest High School.