This year, 40 HR students participated at the DECA Student Leadership Competition 2016. The competition took place from the 21st to the 23rd of February at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.

 DECA is an international association of high school and college students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service. It has over 5,000 chapters worldwide, with one such chapter existing in HR under the leadership of Jaime Young, marketing teacher and DECA adviser.

  How did they do and did they have any success? Young said, “The kids did a good job; the more they practice the better they get.” According to her, HR students did get awarded: Amy Alonzi, senior, won 4th place in the Financial Consulting event, and a team composed of Alonzi, Elly Charland and Natalie Hagan, all seniors, got the Gold Level certificate for the HR School Based Enterprise. “School Based Enterprise” is the official qualification for the HR store next to the cafeteria.

 Hagan said, “I’m most proud of getting the Gold certificate.” She added, “It was exciting because we worked hard and the girls I was with were really fun. We also got to go on stage, which was great.”

 All the above mentioned students will go to DECA Nationals. Charland, when asked what she was most happy about, said,  “We got to go to nationals.” According to Young, six other students made it to the finals but didn’t get to nationals.

 The DECA national competition, also known as ICDC (International Career Development Conference) will take place on April 22-27 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Vlaicu Motrescu, Staff Reporter