DECA students express satisfaction with State Conference results
Members gain opportunity to head to Nationals
Used with permission from Sophia Ross. Juniors Koby Davis, Adin Zweigbaum, Emma Amon and seniors Sydney Ring, Sarah McCallon and Lola Ruff attend the DECA State competition March 3, 2020. They competed against 2,200 people for their placements in their individual events. The next competition will be the International Career Development Conference held in Nashville, Tenn.
March 7, 2020
As names were being announced for placement on the event, junior Adin Zweigbaum said he was waiting anxiously as his name was called for third place for Apparel and Accessories Marketing.
“It was really cool because I was sitting there and I actually didn’t think I did very well. I was getting really nervous, at first I was trying to play like I wasn’t nervous,” Zweigbaum said. “As my event was getting closer to be announced my heart was really pounding and then they called my name and I was like what.”
According to DECA adviser Sophia Ross, she was proud of her 11 Park students for competing in the DECA State competition against 2,200 students.
“The DECA State competition went really well. We brought 11 students to compete in that competition and six of them made it to the final rounds,” Ross said.
Junior Koby Davis, who won third in the State competition for the Sales Demonstration event, said he presented a product to judges in order to advance to the next round.
“I competed in an event where I did a mock sales demo. I had to sell a power drill to a panel of judges,” Davis said. “Each time you have to change something up a little differently so you can constantly impress them and move further down the ranks.”
Davis said he was pleased with being able to win third at State for his event, even though he wished he could have gotten first place.
“I’m pretty happy, I mean obviously I could have gotten first but I’m pretty happy, third out of 200 kids is a pretty big deal. I’m pretty proud of myself,” Davis said. I’m pretty happy, I mean obviously I could have gotten first but I’m pretty happy, third out of 200 kids is a pretty big deal. I’m pretty proud of myself — Koby Davis
Ross said the DECA members were able to gain more experience throughout the whole competition and were able to meet other students competing.
“What they can learn from it is just getting exposure to that experience, sitting down for an interview, sitting down with somebody and just try to figure out a problem,” Ross said. “They also got to do some networking with the other 2,000 students that were there.”
Zweigbaum said being able to advance in the International Career Development Conference is a nice opportunity, as he will be going against other teams from around the world.
“It’s called International Career Development Conference and that’s Nationals, it has 20,000 (teens) from all around the world and this year it’s in Nashville,” Zweigbaum said. “That’s where I compete to see if I had top three in the entire world for my event and that’s a lot cooler to compete in the entire world.”
Davis said he is optimistic to be able to have an opportunity to compete at the National level for DECA.
“Hopefully, I’ll go to Nationals and win but realistically, just getting to Nationals would be a pretty good accomplishment considering how competitive it is,” Davis said.
The International Career Development Conference takes place April 29-May 2 in Nashville, Tenn.
