On April 23-26, six DECA students traveled to Nashville, Tenn. to compete at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). Under the guidance of advisor Beth Majors, Seniors Louis Dubovi, Reilly Collins, Dereck Majors, Grace Hutchison, Junior Michael Fricke and Sophomore Rachel DeCesaris all attended the conference.
After the Pennsylvania State Career Development Conference in Hershey, Pa. on March 1-3, the six Freedom DECA students were one of the top four teams of their clusters. Dereck Majors and Dubovi placed first in Business Operations Services Research, Hutchison and Fricke placed second in Travel and Tourism and Collins and DeCesaris placed fourth in Fashion Merchandising Promotion.
At ICDC, more than 17,500 DECA members, including members from all 50 states, Ontario, Guam, Puerto Rico and Spain, were in attendance. During the competition, which took place at the Music City Center, members took tests and presented to a panel of judges. Testing accounted for one third of the final team’s score while the presentation, or roleplay, accounted for the remaining two thirds. Opening and closing ceremonies took place in the Bridgestone Arena.
Within each cluster, teams were broken into groups. After the tests and presentations concluded, the top two teams from each group, advanced to the final round of competition. No one from Freedom made it to the advanced round of competition.
As PA DECA Treasurer and District 2 Representative, respectively, Dubovi and Collins spoke at a state meeting while at the conference. Additionally, Collins won a $1,000 from the National Society of High School Scholars on April 26.
“I am very proud of all of the hard work the Freedom Students did to be able to advance to the National level and compete with best in the world,” Beth Majors said.
Throughout the conference, the Freedom DECA members also assisted PA DECA President Donald LeCompte, a senior from East Stroudsburg High School, who ran, and was elected, to become the DECA Executive President for 2016-2017.
The international conference marks the last DECA event for Dereck Majors, Dubovi, Collins and Hutchison.
“Being in DECA for four years now, I have gained many great skills from DECA, most importantly the ability to narrow my major to a business related one, specifically marketing. I hope to continue my DECA experience into college, which I think would be great preparation for the real world,” Dereck Majors said. “Due to DECA’s real world examples, I am more prepared to face these situations when they arise.”
“I am strongly considering a double major in public relations and marketing due to my experience in DECA, and the valuable insight I have gained into the marketing field,” Collins said. “Through my time at ICDC, I was not only able to strengthen my connections with people I already consider great friends, but I also got the chance to interact with new people that want to do similar things in their lives that I do.”