AAPS: Pioneer DECA members recognized at DECA’s Virtual International Career Development Conference
Pioneer High School DECA members earned the organization’s highest honors at DECA’s International Career Development Conference (ICDC) held virtually last month.
These students competed among 175 other competitors in EACH event to win these awards at this worldwide event.
Elizabeth Webb (left) and Kaitlin McCreadie (right) are both juniors at Pioneer High School.
DECA members receiving recognition at the international level include: 2nd place – Zach Pryor, Start-Up Business Plan; 4th place – Malak Samaha & Matt Ruud – Hospitality Operations Research Plan; 4th place – Elizabeth Webb & Kaitlin McCreadie – Business Solutions Project; 7th place – Kyle Cheng & Adi Bapat – Community Giving Project.
Nearly 13,000 DECA members competed during the virtual conference, representing the best-of-the-best from state conferences that qualified them to attend this elite group of competitors. These competitors represent thousands of competitors at the local, regional and state/provincial levels. The DECA members above are part of 5% of International competitors who earned a winning spot at ICDC.
“These DECA members should be commended for earning the remarkable recognition as an international honoree,” said Frank Peterson, executive director of DECA Inc. “Their success in our competitive events program — especially in a virtual format — is just one indicator that they are striving to be college and career ready through their classroom learning.”
DECA members presented case study solutions and presentations through recorded videos, with approximately the top 20 competitors in each competitive event earning the opportunity to deliver a final presentation in a virtual meeting with a business professional live over Zoom.
Students interested in joining DECA do so by registering for Marketing Education classes at Pioneer High School.
DECA’s competitive events program is aligned to National Curriculum Standards in the career clusters of marketing, business management, finance, and hospitality and tourism. With categories such as the Integrated Marketing Campaign, Start-Up Business Plan, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling and Business Finance, the competitive events are designed to simulate real-life business scenarios and test students’ academic understanding and skills development. During this year’s virtual format, nearly 1,000 business professionals from across the world evaluated DECA members’ concepts, ideas and projects against industry-validated performance indicators.
