{"id":17882,"date":"2017-05-30T23:28:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T05:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=17882"},"modified":"2017-05-30T23:28:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T05:28:04","slug":"colstrip-teen-named-student-of-the-year-by-national-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/05\/colstrip-teen-named-student-of-the-year-by-national-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Colstrip teen named ‘student of the year’ by national group"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bailey\"<\/a>

Bailey Quin Menahan, of Colstrip, shortly after receiving her Secondary Student of the Year Award at the national conference of the Business Professionals of America, in Orlando, Fla.<\/p><\/div>\n

More than 45,000 students in 25 states and Puerto Rico are members of the Business Professionals of America this year.<\/p>\n

Just eight of those students were from Colstrip High School, and one of them, 18-year-old Bailey Quin Menahan, recently won the organization\u2019s first ever Secondary Student of the Year Award.<\/p>\n

Jeannette Barreto, the BPA chapter adviser in Colstrip, said the group was “extremely surprised\u201d when the award was announced. Barreto quickly clarified that, saying she wasn\u2019t particularly surprised that Bailey had won.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven what she did throughout the four years, no, I was not,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when you look at the number of students running for the award, we just didn\u2019t think anyone from Montana would win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey was more than surprised herself. When she first saw the email announcing she\u2019d won, she thought it must be about the interviewing-skills competition she would be competing in at the BPA\u2019s national conference in May. Even when she read the email more closely it was hard to believe.<\/p>\n

But then she went to the BPA website<\/a> and she saw her essay, the one she wrote as part of the competition, on the home page.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had my name on it, and the title \u2018Student of the Year,\u2019 so that\u2019s when it really hit me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Colstrip chapter of the BPA meets once a week at lunchtime during the school year, working on finance, accounting, marketing, interviewing, entrepreneurship, software programming and other skills. But a big part of belonging to the BPA also means getting involved in community service projects all year long.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>During her four years at Colstrip High\u2014Bailey graduated on May 21, six days after returning from the BPA conference in Orlando, Fla.\u2014she has been a strong supporter of Special Olympics and Relay for Life of Rosebud County and she was a page in the state House during the 2017 Legislature.<\/p>\n

She also played a big role, one usually filled by a school administrator, in establishing a Graduation Matters program at Colstrip High, created under former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau to increase graduation rates statewide.<\/p>\n

Bailey also spent four weeks in Thailand last summer, in an exchange program organized by the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, studying climate change and working at an organic garden and at a school, teaching English.<\/p>\n

At Colstrip High, she was active in track, volleyball, softball, pep band and cheerleading, and by her senior year she had earned enough credits to take a work-study job in the document management department at Talen Energy\u2019s Colstrip power plant. She worked there five days a week from 6 to 10 a.m., starting her school day at 10:30.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s very involved,\u201d Barreto said. \u201cShe\u2019s very busy all day, all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baretto said about 375 Montana students attended the national conference this year, part of a gathering that included about 12,000 students, advisers and chaperones. When Bailey was given her award at the conference, she gave a short speech before an audience numbering in the thousands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit overwhelming, but she did well,\u201d Baretto said. \u201cIt was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was Bailey\u2019s fourth national conference, which students can attend by earning enough points in each of nine \u201cpillars\u201d of BPA membership, including leadership and service. Borreto said Bailey was one of very few Colstrip students to earn enough points during all four high school\u00a0years to attend the national gathering.<\/p>\n

This year she qualified another way, by winning the advanced interviewing skills competition at the state conference in Billings, qualifying her to compete in the nationals. There she placed 18th out of 46 competitors. She also placed 17th of 651 participants in the Merit Scholar Exam.<\/p>\n

How does she find the time for everything she\u2019s involved in?<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I just manage everything really good, and I don\u2019t say \u2018no,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m an opportunist, I like to call myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also inspired by her parents, Pat, a tipple operator at the Westmoreland Coal Co.\u2019s Rosebud Mine, and Brenda, who is in charge of work management programs and systems at the power plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are so supportive,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cThey just pushed me to be the best I could be.\u201d They also showed her the way in community service. \u201cThey\u2019re always willing to give back,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re the most selfless people I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll be attending the University of Montana in Missoula starting in the fall, with plans to major in political science and minor in environmental science. She has also been accepted as a fellow in the Franke Global Leadership Initiative<\/a>, a four-year, 12-credit certificate program that seeks to train future leaders.<\/p>\n

Law school is a possibility, too, as is getting involved in politics\u2014what she called \u201cfollowing the family footsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her paternal grandfather was William \u201cRed\u201d Menahan, an Anaconda Democrat who served in the state House from 1970 to 2000. Her uncle, Mike Menahan, served two terms in the state House and is now a District Court judge in Helena. On her mother\u2019s side, Bailey said, is Rosebud County Commissioner Doug Martens, who\u2019s married to her mother\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 45,000 students in 25 states and Puerto Rico are members of the Business Professionals of America this year. Just eight of those students were from Colstrip High School, and one of them, 18-year-old Bailey Quin Menahan, recently won the organization\u2019s first ever Secondary Student of the Year Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[5893,5894,5895,3468],"class_list":["post-17882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-bailey-menahan","tag-colstrip-high-school","tag-pat-and-brenda-menahan","tag-talen-energy","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17882"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17887,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882\/revisions\/17887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}