From February 28th to March 1st, NVD’s state-qualifying DECA students took a trip to Atlantic City to compete in several business events.

DECA, which stands for “Distributive Education Club of America,” is a high school competition club that business students can take part in. Students can choose to either showcase a pre-planned paper along with a presentation, or compete in roleplays, which are on-the-spot interview based competitions. There are several categories within DECA, for example Advertising, Business Ethics, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Hotel and Lodging, Human Resource Management, and many more. There are three levels of competition: regionals, states, and nationals. Based on how well students compete, they get placed for a chance to compete at a higher level.

This year NVD excelled at DECA states. Ms.Petrella, advisor of NVD’s DECA program, is especially proud of NVD’s success.

“We had 55 students compete and 12 students qualified in their event – which is over 20%. I am really proud of how much work the students put into their projects and their role plays,” she said. 

Nationals qualifier Ari Karageorge, who placed fourth in the Sports and Entertainment Marketing Category at states, is excited to go to Orlando and compete at nationals. 

“This is the first year that I will be able to attend DECA nationals in person, so I am extremely excited. I look forward to getting to know students from all over the country and the world, as well as having the opportunity to compete at the highest level of DECA,” he said.

Nationals qualifier Alex Jacob, who qualified for nationals by placing first in his category of “Business Growth Plan,” said he is looking forward to visiting Florida. 

“I am excited for the fun experiences we will have, especially being able to go to either Disney or Orlando Studios,” he said.

Overall, NVD did very well at the states competition. Having a big group of students representing NVD at nationals is especially impressive. Ari Karageorge is happy with the success this year.

“I was absolutely thrilled with the fact that our school will be well represented at ICDC. I think it is a testament to all of the hard work put in by students and advisors alike,” he said.