2024 DECA State Conference

The Issaquah DECA Club attended WA DECA’s State Career Development Conference in March 2024. We had 159 students in attendance (a school record). Over three days, students competed against 5,000 other students from around the State. It was a fun (and exhausting) three days, and we had some great success to share.

Our club had its best showing in history. 73 students were recognized as Finalists, the top performers in their event (previous best: 65). 55 students qualified for the International Career Development Conference (previous best: 47). Also, 6 students were named State Champs (previous best 3), and 6 students qualified for ICDC in two different events, including two students who were State Champs in two event. We also had a few students who had already qualified for ICDC in online events, so our delegation to ICDC is likely to be almost 10 more students than we’ve ever had before.

 

 

There is such an incredible and large community that helps get this massive trip underway. Cheryl Furey, Alex Stevens, Kevin Houghton, and (retired) Kelly Crickmore all traveled with the group and stayed overnight, along with 13 fantastic parent chaperones. We get an untold amount of assistance from our office staff, in particular Amy Eberhardt, Margaret Pfeifle, Laura Couty, and Jenny Sauer. Our district CTE Staff is always incredible, thank you to Lisa Neighbors, Cynthia Lorrain, and Janel LeMieux. We have also received generous grants from the Issaquah Boosters and the Issaquah Schools Foundations, both organizations striving to help us make this trip more affordable, and thus more attainable, for more students. We also have an amazing group of Mentors that help our students throughout the year: parents, former students, former parents, and friends and colleagues. It really does take a village. And I want to give a particular shout out to Cheryl Furey for the INNUMERALBE ways she supports our students, both in class, on the trips, and in more intangible ways than I can count.

 

If you know these students, please congratulate them for qualifying for ICDC:

• Ava Datta & Riya Jonnala – State Champions in Business Law & Ethics Team Decision Making Event
• Ava Datta, Riya Jonnala, & Nitya Shankar – State Champions in Career Development Project Management
• Olivia Yang – State Champion in Principles of Financial Literacy
• Dia Aggarwal & Shaya Patel – 2^nd place in Business Growth Plan
• Dia Aggarwal & Priyanka Subramanian – 2^nd place in Marketing Management Team Decision Making
• Shreyu Koteshwara, Ekam Singh, & Aaryan Wanjari – 3^rd place in Finance Operations Research Event
• Shaurya Jeloka & Neha Muramalla – 3^rd place in Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making
• Elisha Reyes, Zoey Schuler, & Priyanka Subramanian – 4^th place in Finance Operations Research Event
• Anya Anand – 4^th place in Business Growth Plan
• Maris Menenberg – 4^th place in Principles of Business Management & Administration
• Ishaan Agarwal, Raymond Lai, & Arya Mahajan – Hospitality & Tourism Operations Research Event
• Owen Ostrom – 5^th place in Business Finance Individual Series Event
• Avani Awasthi, Leah Kwak, & Pratishta Venkitesh Ranjani – 6^th place in Business Solutions Project Management
• Arthur Gao & Arav Jain – 6^th place in Financial Services Team Decision Making
• Aditi Kuthanoor – 6^th place in Accounting Applications Individual Event
• Austin Ostrom – 6^th place in Principles of Marketing
• Srita Bollapragada & Medha Rao – 7^th place in Buying & Merchandising Operations Research Event
• Jeremiah Lwin, Robert Fischer, & Matthew Fischer – 7^th Place in Business Growth Plan
• Angela Su & Aarushi Katyal – 7^th place in Finance Operations Research Event
• Justine Wang, Sophia Wei, & Sakura Yamawaki – 7^th place in International Business Plan
• Avani Akerkar & Katie Dillon – 7^th place in Travel & Tourism Team Decision Making
• Eireen Lee, Katie Murray, & Ryan Pang – Hospitality & Tourism Operation Research Event
• Roshy Rajesh, Akshay Tandon, & Calvin Wilding – Community Giving Project Management
• Ishaan Agarwal – 8^th place in Hotel & Lodging Marketing Individual Series
• Robert Fischer – 8^th place in Business Services Marketing Individual Series
• Pavan Pervaje & Ashwin Suresh – 8^th place in Buying & Merchandising Team Decision Making
• Ava Gonzalez – 9^th place in Sports & Entertainment Individual Event
• Frances Xing – 9^th place in Accounting Applications Individual Event

 

Further, the following students (along with all listed above), were recognized as finalists:

Circe Allen	Ash Devgan	Valeria Garcia Agrella
Shivani Gupta	Zoe Iacomini	Ellie Lim
Russell Mavath	Solé Miller	Megha Narra
Ava Ragonesi	Noah Razak	Riddhi Sharma
Sanvi Srivastava	Ellie Yoon