Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to the Atlanta Falcons, and the Georgia World Congress Center were the backdrop for DECA’s International Career Development Conference recently held from April 23 to 26. Thirteen Hillsboro-Deering High School DECA members joined approximately 18,000 other DECA members from all 50 states, several provinces of Canada, and other nations, including Spain, Italy, Japan, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil. The smiles that were visible on members faces were big and evident as the live competition returned in-person for the first time since 2019.
H-D’s DECA team returned from the competition with several top-10 finalists. Earning a spot in the top-10 represents an extreme level of eliteness as less than 10% of all DECA members in attendance at the conference earn a medal on stage.
This year H-D had one Virtual Business Retail Management team qualify for the finals. The team was a solo competitor – Jack Harrington, who finished in 10th place internationally. H-D sent two Virtual Business Restaurant Management teams to the finals. The team of Emily Wilkens, Emma Davison, and Manny Velazquez finished in ninth place internationally in the event. Another solo competitor – Madison Paquette finished just outside of the top ten in 11th place. H-D had one Virtual Business Sports Management teams qualify for the finals. The team of Mason Ferwerda and Ben Perrin finished in fourth place internationally in the event.
During the School-Based Enterprise Academy, sophomore Isabel Swirko, accepted the award for the Gold Certified School-Based Enterprise Award on behalf of the Hillcat Corne. This is the 15th consecutive year that the chapter has received this award.
Rounding out the team of the 13 qualified students from Hillsboro-Deering was senior Serenedy Kelley, and juniors Alexis Ledvina and Madison Ledvina (Business Operations Research), sophomore Kyle Nickalus (Financial Consulting), and freshmen David Prentiss (Principles of Hospitality).
“Just making it to an ICDC is a feather in all their caps. I am very proud of their efforts.” said Marc Payeur, advisor to HD DECA.
H-D DECA would like to express thanks to the Duncan Jenkins Trust for their extreme generosity in assisting with the funding of this enriching activity. Further thanks go to the Red Coat Travel, and to all those that supported us with pizza sales and our kayak raffle.