Mercer Island students place at international DECA competition

May 23, 2017 12:00 pm
The Mercer Island High School DECA team traveled to California for the International Career Development Conference. Four students placed in the finals of the competition. Photo courtesy of Craig Degginger/Mercer Island School District
The Mercer Island High School DECA team traveled to California for the International Career Development Conference. Four students placed in the finals of the competition. Photo courtesy of Craig Degginger/Mercer Island School District

Four members of the Mercer Island High School DECA team placed in the recent International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Anaheim, Calif.

DECA is an international student organization that provides real-world business experiences in a school setting. Students compete in DECA through extemporaneous business case studies that are judged by business professionals, or by submitting various projects that range from 30-page written international business plans to innovational entrepreneurship plans to ad campaigns.

The MIHS DECA team of 19 students brought their best performances and business knowledge to the international competition.

Their advisors are teachers Jen McLellan and Shannon Tapp.

“We are just so proud of each of them making it to ICDC,” McLellan said. “There are 235,000 DECA students worldwide and 11,000 Washington State DECA students they had to compete against to qualify. That is a testament to each of them and their caliber as business and marketing students.”

The students placing in the finals were: Natalie Robinson in Food Marketing Series, Nikita Marcou and Carmen Schaeffer in Financial Services Team Decision Marketing and Marcus Schiller in Business Services Marketing (6th overall).