DECA students break school records at state competition
Photo courtesy of: DRHS DECA Instagram
DECA members take a group photo after the award ceremony.
April 21, 2022
On Mar. 4 the Deep Run’s Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) organization competed in Virginia Beach for the Virginia State Leadership Conference. The competition invites schools from across Virginia who have a DECA chapter.
DECA is a business-based club where you compete in events that have categories generally in fields of business and marketing. This club helps prepare students to be leaders in their desired career path and teaches them useful skills in several fields important to the professional business world.
Co-Vice President of Competitions, junior Justin Hall, appreciates the skills that DECA has provided for him.
“DECA has taught me several leadership skills since I am now an officer in the club and have taken on more responsibilities,” Hall said. “It has also taught me new ways to approach situations and how to be creative on the spot.”
This year, DECA took home several titles at the state competition. Sophomore Jordan Gotta and junior Ashley Wendt placed first overall in Business and Merchandising Operations Research. Hall and junior Sammy Pemmasani placed second overall in Marketing Management Team Decision Making. Seniors Mihret Sisay and Chelsea Witz placed third overall in Integrated Marketing Campaign (Service). Vincent Guarnieri, Eileen Yang, Adelle Topp, and Zoe Rollins all placed in the top ten for the exam or role-play event.
“It felt really good to get second place overall because we worked so hard to prepare for the event, so it was nice to get rewarded,” Hall said.
Chelsea Witz won the James Gray Scholarship and Ashley Wendt was accepted into the Virginia DECA Honor Society. Both of these commendations were firsts for Deep Run DECA members.
The three pairs who placed in their respective events, will be going to the International Career Development Conference from April 23-27 in Atlanta, GA.