Inglemoor High School students received first place at 68th International Career Development Conference in Gerogia.

There were 77 students in 30 of the 45 DECA marketing and business events. Of those 77 students, 42 were recognized as finalists in their event and 35 were recognized as earning top-ten honors or better in their event. Despite heavy competition, Inglemoor led all competition with five first-place wins; four second-place wins; and four third-place wins.

DECA, which stands for “An Association of Marketing Students”, is an international organization of over 210,000 high school student members.  The mission of DECA is to connect classroom learning and activities to the world of work.

“Each marketer first completes a 100 question objective test in his/her event category,” said Alex Yang, Inglemoor sinor and DECA chapter president.  “The day of competition, students are given 10-30 minutes to read and create a solution to a case study, followed by a 10-15 role-play presentation given to two adult judges. The entire process is worth 300 points.”

According to Dennis Rockwood, Inglemoor’s DECA advisor, DECA competition is as engaging for students as any sport in high school.

“Every student in high school will have several careers over the course of their life,” he said. “Each of those careers will be in some type of business – profit business, non-profit business, and yes, even the education business. I see my role as helping and challenging students to be the best they can be in the top 10 soft skills all organizations are looking for. Our communities and our world expect and deserve nothing less.”