It did not take long for Dylan McAllister to make a big impact on Niles High School’s chapter of Business Professionals of America (BPA).

In just his first year on the team, the Niles High School junior used his vast knowledge of network administration to earn a trip to the national BPA conference in Boston, Massachusetts in early May.

“I look forward to representing my school, city and state at the national competition,” McAllister said. “It’s a great honor and I hope to represent my community well.”

To qualify for nationals, McAllister finished in second place in an event called “network administration using Microsoft” at the 2016 BPA State Leadership Conference in Grand Rapids over the weekend. It required him to take a timed 50-question test designed to assess his knowledge of fundamental network management and maintenance tasks in a Windows network.

McAllister said his experience competing with the Niles BPA team at state was a valuable one.

“If nothing else, it helps me build on my professionalism and test myself on the knowledge of the subject,” he said. “It will also be a nice accolade to put on a college application or resume.”

Niles had 10 students competing at the state BPA conference — an all time high for the program. Students qualify for state by placing well enough at regionals.

McAllister was the only student from the area to advance to nationals and is the first person from Niles to do so since Jerrid Burdue won an event at nationals in 2013.

Niles BPA Advisor Alyse Hoyt said more than 2,300 BPA students participated at the state conference, so McAllister’s achievement is a large one.

“It is really difficult to do the work and do well enough to go to nationals,” she said.

Hoyt said BPA is a national organization for middle school, high school and college students preparing for careers in business and office occupations. The organization’s activities and programs complement classroom instruction by giving students practical experience through application of the skills learned at school.

It consists of 25 state associations and more than 50,000 members from more than 2,700 chapters.

Also competing at state for the Niles BPA chapter was Morgan Altergott, Derek Brown, Bree Curtis, Riley Delinski, Maryalice Fortier, Jacob Ganus, Gigi Goshorn, Kiya Grosse and Kyra Grosse.