FHS’s DECA students won a multitude of medals at the State Career Development Conference held in Detroit early March, with 14 students qualifying to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta.
Forty-three medals were awarded across the 26 Falcons who competed in various events revolving around marketing, finance, management and hospitality.
Students start the state competition by completing a written test related to their event and then following it up by competing in role-plays, preparing presentations and/or online simulations to qualify for Internationals.
FHS DECA Vice President of Communication and senior Anusha Khan competed in the School-Based Enterprise event, where she prepared a group presentation on the school store and earned DECA Glass, qualifying for Internationals.
“[My goals for the competition] were to learn more communication [skills] and how to use those professionally,” Khan said.
Preparing for these events preemptively is crucial to moving on to more prestigious opportunities, such as States and Internationals.
“You have to be prepared so you can think through a role-play and give the best possible outcome,” DECA advisor and marketing teacher Nina Merget said. “You have to do some research on what’s going on in the industry you chose to compete in.”
Having the opportunity to go to the state competition provides a great experience in real-world situations.
“It was great to meet a lot of new people,” DECA member and senior Julia Ionescu said. “You gain a lot of interview skills and [the ability to] communicate and improvise on the spot.”
Ionescu, who competed in the retail merchandising role-play, won a first-place medal and earned a spot at the competition in Atlanta.
“[This group] has a lot of critical thinking skills, analytical thinking skills, communication, and they have grit,” Merget said.
The International competition will host approximately 15,000 students from 13 countries around the world hosted in multiple venues including Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Other FHS students who qualified for Internationals include seniors Saanvi Khare, Safia Jallow; juniors Patrick Steele, Brenna Drake, Samarth Kaukuntla, Grayson Goldberg, Nisha Immadisetty, Olivia Brown, Ryan Makke, Ananya Sankar; and sophomores Aravind Ganesh, Rian Aben.
