On April 26, King Philip’s DECA Chapter embarked on their journey to the International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, California, hosted by DECA Inc. The conference hosted 19,000 state and provincial winners from across the United States, Canada, Germany, China, and Guam. DECA is an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management in high schools and colleges across the globe.
King Philip sent 21 written projects to compete at the highest level of competition and remarkably placed three teams in the top 16 internationally. Also worth noting is that King Philip DECA entered our first round of competition in 2017 with 51 projects, qualifying all 51 to attend our State Conference. At our MASS-DECA State Conference, 21 of those earned state recognition to be able to represent Team MASS-DECA in Anaheim. Once again, KP DECA led the way qualifying the most written projects among any other DECA chapter in our state.
Each written project consisted of an eleven or thirty page manual and a fifteen minute presentation evaluated by a judge in business. Some categories were also required to take a test that challenged the competitor’s knowledge of entrepreneurship and marketing. Students in competitive areas were split into categories ranging from A to G depending on how many competitors were in a given category. Each letter grouping presented for a specific judge. The judge combined each team’s written and presentation score to get a competitive score out of 100. The top two groups that were selected by each judge competed in the final round of competition to earn a spot in the prestigious top ten.
King Philip DECA International Finalists & Champions: Grace Patenuade and Lillian Andrews, Fashion Promotion Plan, Top 16; Nick Sammarco and Nick Simmions, Sports Promotion Plan, Top 10; and Meghan Piller, Taylor Peterson, and Katherine Tobichuk, Learn and Earn, Top 10.
Our chapter is also proud and honored to announce that our own Jaron May has been elected as the new DECA Inc. High School Division Executive President at this conference. Jaron is the first member of Massachusetts DECA ever elected to DECA’s highest office in over 50 years of being an active chartered association. Jaron campaigned during DECA ICDC in the Anaheim Convention Center, held nominating caucuses with over 45 associations, and delivered a speech in front of 500 voting delegates.
Jaron has been a Massachusetts DECA Association Officer and is a two-year DECA member from our chapter. Jaron has found a place for himself and met some of his best friends in DECA. He now wants to share his experiences and impact other students’ lives as its International President. Serving as an association officer, Jaron recruited countless new chapters and helped the state membership grow to an all-time high. He also increased and improved their state-wide non-competitive events. Jaron’s favorite part of DECA is networking and meeting with new people. He has attended DECA’s Ultimate Power Trip as well as last year’s International Career Development Conference to compete and serve as a voting delegate. He is excited for his new role as DECA President and will fulfill his office with passion, dedication, and commitment to his office.
Our chapter is ecstatic and proud of our accomplishments at this marketing skills conference, and we look to the future with optimism and outstanding pride for our principles and beliefs.
Issue Date:
June, 2017
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