The Methuen High School DECA Chapter returned home triumphant from last month’s 67th annual Massachusetts DECA State Career Development Conference, with four moving on to the national competition in Atlanta this month!

Forty-three MHS students joined over 4,500 students, advisors and business professionals for the three-day conference at the Westin Seaport and Boston Convention & Exhibition Center where students competed in over 50 categories of marketing, hospitality, finance and entrepreneurship. DECA is a co-curricular organization of high school students that builds transferable skills for college and career with over 215,000 members in all 50 states.

The students participated in one of three areas:
*Role Play Competition, where they took a 100-question comprehensive exam and then performed 2 role-plays with business professionals who volunteered as judges. Role-plays ask students to solve a problem and present their solution to the judge while covering specific performance indicators.

*Written Projects, where they wrote a 10- or 20-page paper, then presented their work to the judge. Written projects include project management, operations research and entrepreneurial business plans.

*Hybrid Competition, which includes the Integrated Marketing Campaigns and Professional Selling Events. Integrated Marketing competitors took a 100-question test, submitted a 10-page paper proposing a 45-day marketing campaign, then presented their campaign to a judge. Professional selling competitors took a 100-question test, then presented their sales research in the areas of finance, hospitality or marketing to a judge.

The Top 12 competitors from the preliminary round advance to the finals. There, they performed one more role-play or presentation to determine their ranking in the Top 12. At the Grand Awards, trophies were awarded to the Top 8 in role-plays and Top 7 in written projects and hybrids.

MHS state finalists were Lily Giard and Maya Tourkantonis for their International Business Plan.

MHS state champions moving on to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Atlanta, Ga., from April 25-30 are:
*Chibuike Ezeadichie, a junior, who placed third in the Business Finance category.

*Damien Pellegrini, Jacob Neang and Caden Nguyen, all seniors, who placed seventh in the Business Growth Plan – Written category.
Only about 10% of students competing at the state level qualify for nationals, making this a significant milestone in MHS DECA history.
“These four students are believed to be the fourth and fifth groups in MHS history to qualify for this prestigious event. We are so proud of all our participants and their dedication to excellence,” noted MHS’ DECA advisers and business teachers Joshua Rogato and Clare Thompson in a statement. “Congratulations to everyone involved!“

Special thank you to Kevin O’Loughlin, Joann Lanari and Callie Coady who donated their time to chaperone the Boston trip.