After State competitions for DECA, senior Anya Morrison said she was pleased with the outcome because she exceeded her personal goals for the season.

“I would say it was a success because I never thought I could make it past the first round,” Morrison said.

Sophomore Daniel Goldberg reflects on his first year of competing with DECA and sees the season as successful.

“I think I did pretty good. It was my first year. The other schools, they have actual classes for DECA and (Park doesn’t). A lot of people from our school placed, so I think that was pretty good because the other schools already have an advantage,” Goldberg said.

“We brought 13 students to the State Conference, and nine of those students made it to the final rounds which means that they’re in the top 12 in the state and then five of those students actually are advancing on to the International Career Development Conference in April,” Ross said.

Morrison reflected on the competition and the camaraderie that came along with the team competing together.

“I think it went pretty well. A lot of us went on to the second round and everyone was super encouraging of each other. It was super fun,” Morrison said.

According to Ross, two newcomers of the team will be advancing onto the next round for their presentations.

“I’m really, really proud. We had two sophomores who competed for the first time this year that are advancing on to Internationals which is really cool,” Ross said.

Ross said her goals for the next year is to pique new students’ interest, who may be skeptical of the program.

“I’m hoping to increase the number of students who actually participate in DECA,” Ross said. “I think we get a lot of members. Like this year we’ve got like 63 members I believe but we only took like 20 some to districts so there’s something that’s happening where students don’t want to compete but once they do they’re hooked.”

According to Ross, DECA Internationals will be April 27-30 in Orlando.

For more information on DECA go to B226.