INDIANA – After four long months of studying and preparing, the DECA members of the Clearfield County Career and Technology center came out victorious. The hard work really paid off when the students brought home 22 medals from the regional districts on Jan. 9. The medals ranged from first to fifth place.
DECA is an association of marketing students that is designed to enhance a specific career objective in marketing, management, business, or distribution. The four schools competing were Clearfield County Career and Technology Center, Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center, State College High School and Taylor Allderdice High School.
The CCCTC students left Clearfield at 7 a.m. and arrived at around 8:30 a.m. to Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Hadley Union Building for the competition. A total of 118 students competed in the event, they started their day by taking a written exam.
The written exam consisted of 100 questions in the event of his or her choice. There were 20 total events compiled of individual and team events. The written exam is one-half of the student’s total score. I know for me, this part of the day seemed like it would never end. Seeing other students in my event taking their tests was very intimidating.
The other half of a competitor’s total score is the role play. The role play is an opportunity for the judge to find out how much the students really know about their event. All students are given 10 minutes to prepare for their time with the judge. In these 10 short minutes, the participant is given their role play scenario where they must find the best strategy to impress the judge. When the time comes for the role play, the student then meets their judge and must discuss how they would handle the scenario they were given.
The role-play is the event that makes students nervous and anxious, but they soon remember that they need to do well to get the points that they need. After the role play, the competitors can relax until the awards ceremony.
The students from CCCTC placed as follows:
INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
Accounting Applications — Whitney Gilday — 3
Apparel and Accessories — Laura Mostolle –r 4
Automotive Services — Kyle Deluccia — 2; Stephen Rodriguez — 3
Business Services — Aly Bracken — 3
Hotel and Lodging Management — Paige Smeal — 2
Quick Serve Restaurant Management — Don Leonard — 3; Ashley Hoover — 5
Retail Marketing Management — Cassandra Haywood — 1
Sports and Entertainment — Nathan Kephart — 5
TEAM EVENTS
Business Law and Ethics — Ashley Milligan and Mandi Milligan — 3; Ben Hainsey and Betsy Graffius — 2
Buying and Merchandising — Sasha Leskovansky and Jerri McGarry — 3
Financial Services — Andrew Arnold and John Smolko — 3
Hospitality Services — Jonna McGarry and Ashley Veidheffer — 3
Sports and Entertainment — Amos Albright and Caleb Glaser –2
A big congratulation to all 24 competitors who did their best at this year’s regional districts.
All of the above winners will be attending the DECA State Conference in Hershey on Feb. 28, March 1 and March 2. Also attending the state DECA state conference will be Jessica Philips, Winter Palmer and Adam Turner.
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