Three St. Mary students will represent the county in a national competition of the Business Professionals of America following strong performances in state competition March 15.

Senior Katherine Miller earned a blue ribbon in entrepreneurship, sophomore Saralyn MacKinnon placed first in fundamental word processing, and senior Patrick Arena was third in legal office procedures. Miller also had a seventh-place finish in advanced word processing.

Also performing well at the state competition in Grand Rapids were nine other students who placed in the top 20 of their respective categories of competition, including:

• Bradi Pasch, fourth place for administrative support research project.

• Emily Boss, fifth place for management presentation.

• Lindsey Korson, eighth place for management presentation.

• Susan Herman advanced to the finals and was in the top 10 in advanced interview skills.

• The economic research team of Pasch, Forrest Tarsa and Kayla Schaub was sixth.

• The web application team of Breanna Korson, Adam Furore and David O’Connor was fifth.

To raise money for the national BPA competition in Reno, Nev., on May 7-11, the students will begin raking lawns this spring.

St. Mary students have participated in BPA for nine years and under the tutelage of teacher MaryAnn Korson have had students advance to national competition in each of those years.