News by Xavier High School Newspaper

March 8, 2012

News

Xavier BPA team competes at state contest Twenty Xavier students participated in the Business Professionals of America State Leadership Conference on February 26, 27, and 28 in Des Moines. Twelve earned the right to compete at the National level in April. Business Professionals of America, or BPA, supports students pursuing a career in business by offering curriculum to teachers and holding Leadership Conferences where students compete in various businessrelated areas. Xavier earned eight first place finishes at the state competition. The Financial Analyst team, made up of juniors Alex Tietz and James Krouse, and seniors Josh Giles and Collin Neuhaus, was the first Xavier team to finish at the top of a team competition. First place finishes also went to senior Brooke Martin and junior Sarah Chicchelly. Krouse set a school record with five first place finishes and one second place finish. National qualifiers with second place finishes were Tietz

Twenty Xavier students competed at the BPA State Leadership Conference on February 26, 27, and 28 in Des Moines. READ Photography Photo in Advanced Spreadsheet and Chicchelly in Graphic Design Promotion and sophomore Jacob Schmitt in Spreadsheet Applications and Fundamental Word Processing along with senior Rachel Sigmon in Fundamental Word Processing. Students with third to fifth place awards

were junior Jacob Wallerstedt in Computerized Accounting (3rd), seniors Emily Metz in Keyboarding Production (3rd), Martin in Advanced Spreadsheet (3rd), Giles in Fundamental Spreadsheet (4th) and Banking & Finance (5th), Molly Snow in Keyboarding Production (5th) and Taylor Wertzberger in

Database Applications (5th). Xavier picked up numerous honorable mention awards starting with seniors Micaela Franey in Keyboarding Production and Ryan Milke in Marketing/Management/Human Resources, and juniors Cal Stovie in Computerized Accounting, Hunter Wille in Fundamental Spreadsheet, Craig Murtha in Advanced Spreadsheet, and Becca Winders as a finalist in Graphic Design Promotion. Seth Fahnle and Drew Scott also competed at the state conference. “I was pleased with how they did at State,” BPA Advisor Tim O’Brien said. “It’s the fourth year Xavier has had BPA, and it’s the fourth time more than half of our students will be going to Nationals.” The BPA National Leadership Conference will be held April 2429 in Chicago. Anna Busse News Writer

Iowa embraces Blue Zone project in C.R. Last August Governor Branstad announced a goal of making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation by 2016. Iowa currently is ranked 19th according to the 2010 GallupHealthways Well-Being Index®. In the effort to make Iowa the healthiest state, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, HyVee, and Healthways are collaborating on an initiative termed the Blue Zone Project. This initiative is designed to support ten Iowa communities in becoming healthier by adopting some of the characteristics of other places in the world that have been called Blue Zones. National Geographic researcher Dan Buettner came up with the term “Blue Zone” to designate several places in the world where people have been found to live the longest. These places have a large number of people over age 100 and many in their 80s and 90s. What’s most important, however, is that these people are generally healthy, active, and happy. The people in these

Blue Zones share nine lifestyle habits in common that are known as the Power 9. A few of these include: eating mostly plant-based diets, supportive social circles of family and friends, and living in walkable communities for added physical activity. Some places that have already been coined as Blue Zones are the Islands of Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Ikaria, Greece. Fifty eight communities in Iowa have submitted applications to the Blue Zones project. On February 10, while at a Healthcare Summit at Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids, Governor Branstad announced the eleven communities that were selected as Blue Zone finalists. Cedar Rapids was chosen as a finalist along with Ames, Cedar Falls, Clinton, Davenport, Mason City, Muscatine, Ottumwa, Sioux City, Spencer and Waterloo. The selected communities will each undergo site visits this spring

Center Point Rd. Cedar Rapids, IA

before the final selection. The ten communities selected will become Blue Zones over a period of threeyears. Cedar Rapids had its site visit on March 1 and the selection

of the first three committees will be released in May. Mary Levett Opinion Writer

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