IHS DECA Ranks Among World’s Top Programs at International Conference

DECA ICDC Conference

April 2026

IHS DECA had a great trip to Atlanta last week for the International Career Development Conference. 

This year’s ICDC featured more than 26,000 members and advisors in attendance. In addition to career-based competition, DECA members engaged in leadership academies and networking opportunities with over 80 internationally recognized businesses and universities. Overall, DECA, Inc includes over 290,000 students from around the world, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Guam, Puerto Rico, Germany, China, Republic of Korea, Japan, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, and many others.

This year featured tremendous success for Issaquah DECA. We were one of the largest groups from Washington State. 3 were sub-category winners during preliminary round of competition, 15 of our students were Finalists, meaning they came in the top 20 in the world. This puts us in the top 25 of all DECA programs worldwide.

If you know these individual students, please congratulate them on their success:

• Neil Sharma, top test performer, Integrated Marketing Campaign - event
• Jinmo Nam, top test performer, Business Finance Series
• Noah Razak, top test performer, Business Services Marketing Series
• Eireen Lee & Katie Murray, top 20, Community Giving Project
• Maris Menenberg, 7^th place, Marketing Communications Series
• Emily Nguyen, Rithvi Tamhane, & Tianshu Wei, 6^th place, Career Development Project
• Avani Akerkar & Katie Dillon, 4^th place, Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making
• Srita Bollapragada & Tvisha Shah, 4^th place, School-based Enterprise - Food Operations
• Shresta Kandula, Anvi Mohare, & Aryanna Sabharwal, 3^rd place, Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research
• Ava Datta & Riya Jonnala, WORLD CHAMPIONS, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making