Niles New Tech senior Dylan McAllister, 17, was not expecting his name to be called as a first-place winner for the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference, but when it was, McAllister said he did an internal happy dance.

McAllister was awarded first place for his skills in network administration using Microsoft/MTA Networking on Saturday, May 13 in Orlando, Florida.

“It was pretty crazy,” McAllister said. “I was humbly like, ‘Yeah.’”

To achieve the win at nationals, McAllister had to complete an exam and a certification test, both of which  evaluate proficiency in networking fundamentals. He also ranked fifth out of 10 in computer security.

Passing the test and earning recognition at a national level will definitely be an eye catching line he can add to a resume, the senior said.

McAllister joined the Business Professionals of America as a sophomore. The BPA provides students the opportunity to gain experience in career and technical skills. Those involved, square up against high school students in a variety of competitions at regional, state and national levels.

McAllister competed in nationals last year, too and placed among the top three.

Reflecting on his win Saturday, McAllister said the difficulty in many of these competitions is going up against students from competing technology schools.

“That is one advantage that I certainly did not have,” McAllister said.

Despite this, McAllister’s early passion for computers and the opportunity to dual enroll at Lake Michigan College, where he took a computer course in security, helped him hone in his skills and earn that first place award at the nationals level.

“Anything that you can think of doing with computers, it is probably going to be in  [BPA].” McAllister said.

McAllister’s earliest memory of tinkering with computers is accidentally signing his parents up for AOL on a windows computer.

“They spent all day on the phone with an IT person trying to cancel it,” McAllister said.

In the fifth grade, he designed a website for his Howard-Ellis Elementary teacher, Sue Bowzer. By eighth grade, McAllister started volunteering with Hope Community Church, which he has attended all his life. McAllister and a team of people helped to build the network from the ground up. McAllister continues to volunteer at the church and operates their network administrations. The 17-year-old can troubleshoot any number of problems, from server to network issues.

In his senior year at Niles High School, McAllister joined the Nordic Knights in programming and designing their own robot.

McAllister credits these opportunities with helping him on to victory, but the senior is not done tinkering with machines just yet.

Following his graduation, McAllister said he will be attending the University of Michigan, where he will be enrolled in the college of engineering and will later declare a major in computer science. He is also planning on being in the Air Force ROTC.

McAllister said he hopes to one day apply his computer skills to the military and help protect forces as an Air Force cyber. He is also considering working as a network architect.

Either way, McAllister said he is eager to apply all he has learned in the years past.

Through Business Partners of America, McAllister said he realized his skills in computers were more than a hobby.

“I think the number one thing I gained from BPA was acknowledgement,” McAllister said. “Just seeing that, ‘hey, I actually do have some capability in this stuff.’ It showed me personally … that ‘hey, I am doing this right.’”