The annual North Suburban Area DECA Career Conference brought 1,300 students from 23 area schools to compete in multiple business role plays and business-oriented exams, with an unprecedented seven students from Evanston Township High School taking 1st-place overall finishes. The DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) competition held in January included 34 ETHS students, 21 of whom brought home medals in their respective events.
ETHS overall winners in their respective events included:
• Holly Cunningham, – 1st place in Principles of Hospitality & Tourism
• Ezra Garfield – 1st place in Personal Financial Literacy
• Adam Nieldbalski – 1st place in Sports & Entertainment Marketing
• Ben Osterlund – 1st place in Principles of Business Management & Administration
• Noah Silverman – 1st place in Business Finance Services;
• Matteo Di Bernardo and Henry Young – 1st-place team in Financial Services
• Will McGinley – 2nd place in Retail Merchandising
• Zane Kashner – 2nd place in Business Services Marketing
• Alec Dinerstein – 3rd place in Personal Financial Literacy
• Jorie Minsky – 3rd place in Food Marketing
• John Muyres – 3rd place in Business Services Marketing
• Quinn Tucker – 3rd place in Hotel & Lodging Management
• Andrew Bempah and Joey Schnide – 3rd-place team in Hospitality Services
In addition, the following ETHS students took home a medal for their performance on either an exam or a role play in their respective events – Tina Giordano, Atul Kumar, Brenda Nguyen, James Williamson, Nick Maslauski and Matt Schroeder. The team of Matteo Di Bernardo, Quinn Menzies and Noah Silverman took home third place overall in the Entrepreneurial Innovation Plan event with a business concept for a diagnostic tool for use by law enforcement.
“Many of these students returned to DECA this year after a record-breaking competition last year, and they just continued to do their very best, resulting in a truly epic performance,” said Gary Haller, ETHS teacher and DECA co-advisor. “ETHS did so well and stood out so much among the other schools, that the Illinois DECA officer team is coming to ETHS for a debrief. They want to know what’s happening at ETHS DECA to be so successful.”