From Friday, May 2 to Thursday, May 8, Freedom’s very own DECA chapter participated in the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC). This is the highlight of the DECA year and equivalent to a national competition in other sports.
This year marks the first time since 2012 that Freedom had advanced to participate in the national competition. Though there had been a student qualifier, Freedom did not actually attend the competition. Nikki Wallis, a 2012 Freedom graduate, was the most recent student to advance to internationals.
In order compete at DECA ICDC, Pennsylvania competitors must place in both the District and State competitions.
This year, the Freedom chapter qualified and was able to attend the ICDC held in Atlanta, Ga. Senior Jen Wallis, like her sister, qualified to compete in the international competition. Wallis placed first in Apparel and Accessories Marketing at the state competition, sending the rest of Freedom DECA to Georgia.
“It felt really good knowing I placed in states, along with other members. Even though we didn’t excel at the competition, I feel that we, as a chapter, got to grow a lot and learn things we otherwise wouldn’t have learned about DECA and each other,” Wallis said.
Along with Wallis, Juniors Patrick Baker, Ryan Gray and Zach Kugel, Sophomores Reilly Collins and Louis Dubovi and Freshman Maddie Edder attended the ICDC. While Wallis was the only actual competitor, the rest of the attendees learned valuable skills at the conference.
“After the workshops, everyone came back with great ideas for what we could do for the chapter next year,” Baker said. “We’re going to be recruiting as many people as possible [next year] so we can get our name out there like other big-name schools.”
The trip to Georgia allowed students to meet other DECA members not only from the United States, but around the world as well. There were approximately 17,000 total DECA members at the conference.
Besides the competition and workshops, students also were able to tour Georgia together during breaks in their schedules. The chapter was accompanied and aided by Mr. Robert Nathan and Mrs. Gayanne Ice, who surprised the group with fancy dinners and even a trip to the lake. They, along with hundreds of other DECA members, also attended Six Flags amusement park, a zoo and Stone Mountain Park.
“My favorite part of the trip was just spending time with the rest of the group; they are amazing people,” Collins said.
As of now, the results of the competition are not yet known. For their role play, contestants spoke to one of eight judges and the top two from each judge were sent to the next round of competition. This meant that approximately 16 people would compete in the next round, ten of those people would be called on stage in the closing ceremony and the top three would be awarded trophies. If one did not score in one of these divisions, how well he or she did is not known unless they order a score report that would arrive in June.