This year’s Georgia DECA State Career Development Conference (CDC) was held Feb. 16-18 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. This competition event brings students and advisors from all over the state to one location. North Forsyth High School’s DECA program sent 32 students to participate. These students and advisors had the opportunity to compete among the best in the state in the competitive role-play and manual/presentation events program, scholarship interviews, AMA Teacher Grant Interviews and state officer elections. Students also had the opportunity to participate in leadership workshops and trainings.

The competitions included Principles of Business & Administration Events, Individual Series Events, Team Decision Making Events, Business Operations Research Events, Chapter Team Events, Marketing Representative Events, Professional Selling Events, Personal Financial Literacy Events, Business Management & Entrepreneurship Events, Georgia Role Play Only Events, the Emerging Leader Academy and the SBE Academy.

The opening ceremony brought a huge success in awards to North Forsyth High School. With these awards come participation slots for DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) that will be help in Anaheim, California in April. This means that North Forsyth will send students that show promise as future leaders of the NFHS DECA program.

Awards included:

Griffin Hausler – 3^rd Place in Georgia Only Testing Award in Free Enterprise Economics

School Awards:

Go Get Georgia DECA Award

Tree Level Award for the Go Green Project

Membership Campaign Award

Promotional Campaign Award

Community Service Award

Megan Martin received an award for being at the top of Round One in Virtual Business: Accounting

If you would like to see more information about these awards, you can visit http://gadeca.org/. Our own marketing teacher, Ms. Cline, won one of two AMA Teacher Grant Scholarships. This event was based on information submitted and an interview conducted at the GA CDC. Ms. Cline will use this scholarship grant to attend the DECA AMPED in Charlotte, North Carolina in June. This is a professional learning experience designed for business, marketing, finance, hospitality and entrepreneurship teachers. She will participate in several workshops and network with other DECA advisors and bring everything that she learns back to NFHS DECA to share with our students.

The North Forsyth High School students shined during the competitive events. Several students placed and will be moving on to the international competition. Students who placed are:

Zachary Eckert – Business Services Marketing

Adarsh Patel and Victoria Telesco – Independent Business Plan

Hanine Awad and Samantha Durfey – Hospitality Services Team Decision Making

Zachary Eckert, Brett Nelson and Griffin Hausler – Learn & Earn Project

Ty Black & Connor Winkler – Marketing Management Team Decision Making

The GA DECA CDC event was a success for North students. There was a lot of work put into practice and preparation. Students interacted with local business members in role playing practice and presenting manuals. They continued practicing as they arrived on Thursday and into the night after the opening ceremonies. Friday was spent in leadership workshops, state officer elections, competitions and supporting their fellow DECA members. Friday night brought a chapter dinner for the students at a nearby restaurant followed by a GLOW Party event. Saturday morning everyone was up bright and early for breakfast, and the awards ceremony as well as the announcement of the results of the new state officer election.

If you are interested in seeing highlights from the GA DECA CDC event, go to http://www.thinkback.com/gadeca.html.