Plymouth North High School's DECA Program recently had 140 students compete in the DECA District 1 Conference held in Falmouth, MA. The students competed in a variety of role play events on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, personal finance, restaurant and food service management and marketing for various industries.
Plymouth North had a very successful conference, with 67 students placing in first through fifth place, which qualifies them for the DECA State Career Development Conference being held in Boston in March. There were 15 first place winners, 9 second place winners, 14 third place winners, 18 fourth place winners, and 11 fifth place winners. William Anstatt, a senior, was the first place winner for the top score in the Entrepreneurship Cluster Exam. Lily Johnson, a senior, was the first place winner for the top score in the Business Management & Administration Cluster Exam.
Before the conference, students are required to take a 100-question exam in their respective cluster area for their category. At the conference, students complete role plays with industry leaders as judges. They are provided a business scenario related to their category and must prepare a solution to present in a limited amount of time. This experience assists students with further developing their problem-solving skills, communication skills, and professionalism.
Other high schools competing in the district event included Braintree, Duxbury, Holbrook, Marshfield, North Quincy, Pembroke, Plymouth South, Quincy, Scituate, Weymouth, and Whitman-Hanson.
Plymouth North DECA was also recognized for the Thrive Level Chapter Campaigns. Plymouth North DECA was among 645 chapters that achieved Thrive Level recognition during the 2023-2024 school year and will be commended at DECA’s International Career Development Conference (ICDC) held April 27-30, 2024, in Anaheim, California.
Each fall, DECA offers four campaigns for chapters to complete as part of their program of leadership for the year. These campaigns are designed to grow membership engagement and build lasting partnerships within the school and local community. Chapters that achieve Thrive Level receive a commemorative pennant, flag and plaque. The chapters also have an opportunity to participate in ICDC. In order to receive Thrive Level recognition, the chapter completed two out of three chapter campaigns, including the community service campaign, ethical leadership campaign, and promotional campaign. The chapter also participated in the membership campaign, which challenged the chapter to attain two of three goals: recruit 20 professional members, recruit 20 alumni members or increase student membership by 20 more members from the previous school year.
About DECA Inc. - DECA is a career and technical student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs with a career interest in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA enhances the preparation for college and careers by providing co-curricular programs that integrate into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business and promote competition. DECA student members leverage their DECA experience to become academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible, experienced leaders. DECA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with nearly 250,000 members in 4,000 high school and college chapters in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Germany. For more information about DECA, visit www.deca.org.
