By: Leah Pefkaros
The 2018 DECA state career development conference was held from March 9-11 in Detroit, Michigan at Cobo Center. Over 4,000 members gathered from all over the state to compete and meet important influential businesses professionals. This weekend gave students an opportunity to develop leadership and occupational skills.
“Students should strive to qualify at districts to go to states because the experience and knowledge they will gain will be very beneficial in any field they pursue,” Brighton DECA advisor Tanya Clark said.
On Friday, students attended orientation and written events occured. Later that night the opening session took place and state officers were elected. There were 15 students that went from our chapter. Only one student participated in a written event, which was the president of the Brighton chapter, Lauren Pytlak.
On Saturday, is when all the competitive events occured. Some took place in the morning starting at 8:30am, while others ended at around 5:00pm. After participating in the events, students had a little free time to socialize and meet with other members. Then at the end of the night members went to the general session. This included hypnotist Brian Imbus as a little form of entertainment for all the members. An announcement was also made of the Marketing Math/ Economics winners & ICDC Academy Participants.
“The hypnotist was such an interesting part of the conference. I was slowly becoming hypnotized, but then I snapped out of it. It was truly a remarkable experience,” Senior Lauren Pytlak said.
“The conference was very exciting and I really feel that the students enjoyed themselves with their participation in all the DECA events competing and all the events that were provided,” Brighton DECA advisor Michelle Costa said.
Sunday was the last day of the conference, but before heading home students attended a grand awards session. There were 5 state finalist which included Freshman Jordan Schebel, Sophomore April Muench, Senior Lauren Pytlak, Senior Hannah Swanson, and Senior Parker Speers. Two state champions will be representing Michigan DECA at the International Career Development conference in April, which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. These participants are Lauren Pytlak and April Muench.
“I really enjoyed it and I think that it was extremely beneficial for the kids. I feel that if you have any interest in businesses, the opportunities that come with DECA are beyond valuable,” Brent Luplow said.