PHOTO CREDIT: RACHAEL DUBROW
BY DANIEL LEIBOWITZ
Ninety eight students from Cooper City High School’s DECA chapter competed at the Career Development Conference State competition in Orlando, Florida from Thursday, March 5 to Sunday, March 8 in hopes of going to Nationals.
At the end of the competition, 29 students placed in the top 6 in their categories, making them eligible for the Nationals Competition, as well as eight others in the “bubble”, or potential for eligibility if a qualifying student drops out. The categories include either a business plan or testing, and students may choose to compete in Finance, Marketing, Hospitality and Tourism, and Business Management/Administration. In order to qualify for States, students had to place top 12 in their category at the districts competition in January.
“We had an extremely successful by year, managing to qualify 18 groups to compete at ICDC,” Chapter Advisor Rachael Dubrow said.
Besides competing in the states competition, Cooper City DECA also ran Sophomore Landon Counts for one of four Florida DECA State Vice Presidents. After a grueling campaign process lasting several months, Counts was chosen as one of the new Vice Presidents.
“Campaigning included buying various ‘Count On Counts’ merchandise, writing and giving a speech, creating a booth in which my campaign team and I spoke to various DECA members from around the state, and being questioned by rooms of voting delegates,” Counts said.
CCHS DECA is excited to go to Nationals this year, which will be held in Orlando, Florida beginning on April 25th.
“Last year we qualified two students for finals, or winning at Nationals competition,” Dubrow said. “My hope this year is to qualify at least five students for finals.”
