DECA places third in States, strong individual events

By Rebecca Hirsh

Nineteen teams, both individual and partner, of the DECA team placed in their events at States at the Marriott Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland Feb. 22-23. DECA places third in States, strong individual events Despite having one of the smallest teams at the competition, Whitman placed third overall, as well as winning membership and chapter campaigns awards. One team of two each earned a $500 scholarship to the college of their choice. Depending on the event, either the top two or three teams at states qualify for Nationals April 21-24 at the DECA International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. A group of delegates proportional to the number of members from a participating school also elected junior Ben Meron to serve as the Vice President of Chapter Development on the DECA state officer team.

DECA is organized into five career clusters: Business Management and Administration,  Hospitality and Tourism, Marketing, Finance and Entrepreneurship, each with a certain number of competitive events. The individuals and teams who placed are listed below with their event, organized by career cluster.

Business Management and Administration

Freshman Daniel Molina placed third in Principle of Business Management and Administration.

Hospitality and Tourism

Seniors Andrew Ewing and Josh Rich placed third in Hospitality Services Team Decision Making.

Sophomore Aditi Gujaran placed second in Hotel and Lodging Management.

Sophomore Rasika Dronamraju placed first in Principles of Hospitality and Tourism.

Junior Thomas Fratantoni placed first in Quick Serve Restaurant Management.

Senior Aaron Zhao placed second in Quick Serve Restaurant Management.

Marketing

Junior Nathan Schaefer placed third in Automotive Services Marketing.

Junior Bennett Werbel placed third in Business Services Marketing.

Junior Jackson Barlow placed second in Food Marketing.

Junior Mira Dwyer placed first in Marketing Communications.

Senior Zain Yaqub and junior Brandon Carboni placed third in Marketing Communications Team Decision Making.

Sophomore Meera Dahiya placed second in Principles of Marketing.

Freshmen Daniel Bronfman and Stetson Eliason placed second in Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making.

Finance

Junior Ben Meron placed first in Business Finance.

Junior Jared Lapidus placed second in Financial Consulting.

Sophomore Rony Stephan placed first in Principles of Finance.

Entrepreneurship

Senior Alex Manes placed third in Entrepreneurship Series.

Sophomores Lukas Troost and Nathaniel Zitner placed second in Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making.

Seniors Terry Zhou and Paula Masi placed first in Start-up Business Plan, each earning a $500 scholarship to the college of their choice.