Colleyville Heritage and Grapevine high schools competed at the state DECA competition held February 15-17 in Houston, Texas, and nine returned as first place champions, a particularly difficult feat since the Texas chapter is the largest DECA association in the world with more than 19,000 members. DECA is a national student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.
As first place state winners, these students now advance to compete at DECA’s international conference to be held April 27-30 in Anaheim, Calif., where they will have an opportunity to win awards and scholarships. They will be competing against other first place champions from across the United States and participating countries. As an integral part of the classroom curriculum, DECA’s industry-validated competitive events are aligned with the National Curriculum Standards in the career clusters of marketing, business management and administration, finance, and hospitality and tourism. DECA is formerly the Distributive Education Clubs of America.
Congratulations to GCISD DECA state winners!
Sophia Brownell, GHS, Sales Project
Benjamin Ding, CHHS, Hotel and Lodging Management Series
Zihan Nicole Huang, CHHS, Restaurant and Food Services Management Series
Sarah Grimes, GHS, School Based Enterprise: Retail
Anna Machado, GHS,Sales Project
Sofiya Malyshchak, GHS, Business Growth Plan
Kathleen Manyloun, GHS, Business Services Marketing Series
Layne Nguyen, GHS, School Based Enterprise: Retail
Frances Walters, GHS, Food Marketing Series
Hunter Scruggs and Karen Smith are the advisors for CHHS. Carolyn Province, Robyn DeArmond, Brandie Stewart and Kaylie Kotecki are the advisors for GHS.