Colleyville Heritage High School and Grapevine High School DECA members joined thousands of high school business, finance, hospitality and marketing students at the annual Texas DECA State Career Development Conference held in late February in Houston. After two years of canceled and virtual competitions, members were overjoyed at competing in person again.
A total of 40 GCISD students were honored at the conference as either State Champions or State Runners-Up, including 26 State Champions who will all move on to compete at the International Career Development Conference in April. Held in Atlanta this year, there will be over 20,000 students from across the U.S. and Canada competing at the conference.
DECA, the Distributive Education Clubs of America, prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.
State Champions
Business Law & Ethics Team Decision Making - GHS - Emily O'Neill & Natalie Poveda
Business Law & Ethics Team Decision Making - GHS - Layne Nguyen & Ella Larsen
Business Services Marketing - GHS - Ifunanya Obinabo
Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making - GHS - Krish Bhayani & Zackary Keller
Finance Operations Research - GHS - Nithya Budda & Elyssa Chandler
Financial Services Team Decision Marketing - GHS - Alim Prasla & Rishi Manyam
Hospitality & Tourism Operations Research - CHHS - Cindey Xiao & Samantha Zelling
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making - CHHS - Joeun Kim & Aneri Patel
Hospitality Services Team Decision Marketing - GHS - Sara Halliburton & Mary Schnautz
Innovation Plan - GHS - Andriy Malyshchak & Girish Sundaresan
Marketing Management Team Decision Making - CHHS - Aashish Dewani & Simran Dhanani
Principles of Marketing - GHS - Yashvi Shah
Retail Merchandising - GHS - Julia Rabinovich
Sales Project - GHS - Maya Jarwan & Divya Yarlagadda
School Based Enterprise - Retail - GHS - Tasiana Naputi
State Runners-Up
Business Services Operation Research - CHHS - Tanshuri Bhatt, Asmaa Sulthar, & Afrah Sulthar
Career Development Project - GHS - Graysen Denning & Madison Hartsfield
Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making - CHHS - Annabelle Dooley & CeCe Gaughan
Hotel Lodging and Management Series - CHHS - John Dwyer
Retail Merchandising - GHS - Rondale Carridine
Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making - CHHS - Ben Ding & Finley Warren
Chapter Awards
Colleyville Heritage - Thrive Level, Century Chapter, Membership Campaign, Promotional Campaign
Grapevine - Epic Chapter, Community Service Campaign, Membership Campaign, Promotional Campaign, School-Based Enterprise Gold Level Certification (The Outpost)