Scores of plateau business and marketing students, working individually and in teams, recently competed in their regional DECA competitions where they won top honors.
Battling it out in categories ranging from accounting, marketing, retail and entertainment management to business law and ethics, financial services, travel and tourism, and sales, many of those students qualified for the DECA state contest March 7 through March 9.
Skyline won the overall area 4 competition by 118 points and is sending 99 students to state. Eastlake competed in the area 3 division and qualified 31 of its students for state.
Several students from both high schools took first place in their individual and team categories. From Skyline, Salma Mahmoud and Kate Cormier took first place in Hotel and Lodging Management; Mike Seeley won for Professional Selling; Emily Rochford took first place in Entrepreneurship Participating-Independent; and Mary Alice Peng finished first in Entrepreneurship Participating-Franchise.
In team events from Skyline, Sydney Kane and Megan Humble won Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan; and Kourtney Kirton and Jake Therrien took first place in Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan.
From Eastlake, Alaina Hartley won for Apparel and Accessories Marketing; Natalie Hurd won in Marketing Management; and Cody Sheffels took first place in Sports and Entertainment Marketing. As a team for Eastlake, Lauren Greenheck and Chris Wright finished first for Advertising Campaign.
DECA is an international association of high school and college students studying marketing, management, and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service.