Five students traveled to Salt Lake City April 27 for a three-day entrepreneurship and business management skills competition, where they challenged about 16,000 other high school students in various events.

Students on the DECA club team attended the annual International Career Development Conference for the first time in four years. During the tournament, they competed in written exams on industry skills, gave presentations to judges on business solutions and completed other individual and group tasks. The five students qualified for the conference through a state tournament in March, teacher sponsor Demitra Marafatsos said.

DECA, or Distributive Education Clubs of America, has 180,000 members in 5,000 high schools across the country. Its mission is to prepare students for future careers and opportunities in entrepreneurship, management and hospitality.

The conference taught students about the industries such as hotel management and marketing. The participants also connected with other DECA members throughout the world.

“We met people from almost every state, Canada and Guam,” junior Michael Amrine said. “It gives us a connection to people who share the same interests.”

Amrine, who will be next year’s club co-president, was also a state voting delegate during the conference and helped to elect the next group of national officers. He represented Maryland well, Marafatsos said.

The students also got a chance to visit some of the area’s famed sites during their five-day trip, such as the Mormon temple and Park City Olympic Park.

“It was a great mix of competing with 15,000 other DECA members and seeing the great sights of Utah,” sophomore Jack Puglisi said. “It motivates us to qualify again next year so we can attend the conference in Anaheim.”

Amrine hopes that the Whitman chapter will continue to expand in future years, in part because there’s a DECA event for everyone, he said.

The team has already seen increased interest for next year’s team, Marafatsos said. With students in previous years not attending the conference due to high expenses, Marafatsos hopes that next year’s new members and more fundraising will allow the team to attend the conference annually.

While the students did not place in the finals of the conference, Marafatsos said she learned valuable tips for DECA’s next season.

“Anywhere they could during the conference, they threw in a curveball to really find the best teams that were ready for anything,” said Marafatsos. “Next time I might be a little more aggressive during the training for the conference.”