DECA Students Win Medals in State Championship

Nine Vineland High School South DECA members attended the 46th annual New Jersey Distributive Clubs of America (DECA) State Career Development Conference held last week at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, said advisor Valerie McDonough, a marketing education teacher at the high school.

Three students received awards for their overall performance in their competitive event areas. Elizabeth DiRenzo, Kathryn Petrini, and Erica Russo finished first in the Learn and Earn Project and thus qualified to attend the 2007 DECA International Career Development Conference scheduled for April 27 through May 2 in Orlando. DiRenzo also earned first place trophies in the written test and in a role play situation in Food Marketing Management.

Jason Roth won a first place trophy in a specific marketing function as it related to Hotel and Lodging Management.

Medals were awarded to the Jason Roth and Alexander Schimmel for placing fifth in the Community Service Project and DiRenzo in Food Marketing Management.

Rashad Bates served as the official photographer for the conference. A slide presentation of his photographs was presented as an overview of the conference at the grand awards session on Friday, March 2.

Of New Jersey DECA's 6000 members, those participating at the state level qualified to participate in 19 of the events and choose from an additional 17 events such as international, e-commerce, or entrepreneurship business plans, marketing research papers, fashion merchandising promotions and advertising campaign events. Over 1400 New Jersey DECA members competed on the state gold division this year, and more than 100 business professionals volunteered their time to serve as judges.

DECA, an international association of marketing students, provides a co-curricular program of activities for local high school marketing education programs across the United States and Canada, Germany, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Its renowned Competitive Events Program incorporates interviews, tests, role-plays, online simulations and written project reports to evaluate marketing and management skills identified by the business community as essential for success in business today. These skills are currently being taught in the marketing classroom and through DECA activities.

Chapter members are now preparing for the International Conference and planning activities and projects for next year.