Photo provided to the Times Observer These 10 students from the Warren County Career Center have qualified for the state DECA competition as a result of a district competition held last week. The students are, from left, first row, Ella Bouchard, Paige Dexter and Kendra Chase and, back row, David Perry, Sarah Tome, Addyson Hannold, Rylan Meneo, Nicholas Hamler, Sam Smith

A group of students from the Warren County Career Center have moved on to the state DECA competition.

Ten students qualified at the district competition to participate at states in Hershey in February. DECA is a nonprofit organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges.

As part of the classroom curriculum, DECA’s competitive events are aligned with the National Curriculum Standards in the categories of marketing, business management and administration, finance, and hospitality and tourism.”I think that seeing this many first and second place finishes from our students is indicative of just how effective our WCCC programs are — particularly our Marketing program,” Dominick Giannini, DECA advisor at the WCCC said.

Sam Smith took first place in Marketing Communications while Rylan Meneo finished in first in Sports and Entertainment Marketing.

Those finishing in second place include Sarah Tome (Apparel and Accessories Marketing), Ella Bouchard (Business Services Marketing), David Perry (Human Resources Management), Nicholas Hamler (Retail Merchandising), Paige Dexter/Kendra Chase (Entrepreneurship Team Event) and Mariss Gourley/Addyson Hannold (Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Event).

The contest was held at Penn State Dubois on Dec. 8.

“The biggest takeaway for the students participating in DECA is definitely the ability to think creatively under pressure,” Giannini said. “When they arrive at the competition, they are handed a sheet of paper with a problem that a business in their target area might face, or with an idea that is partially formed but needs fully fleshed out.”

They’re given 10 minutes to put together a plan and pitch that plan to someone who owns or manages a business in that space.

“It forces them to think outside the box, while also being decisive because of the time constraint,” he added.

“These are skills that are super useful in both academic and professional settings.”

Giannini said that the students do “a ton of work” to prepare for the competition.

“I was printing out tests and event scenarios from previous years that I had found online, but the students were finishing these faster than I could gather material,” he said. ” This gave the students a good sense of what to expect when they sat down to take this year’s exam, as well as for their roleplay event. All of the WCCC DECA students are enrolled in our Marketing program, which gave them an excellent knowledge and experience base to draw from.”

He credited the marketing instructor, Cathie Cummings, for doing an “incredible job of making sure that these students have a solid academic and practical foundation.

“This competition was an opportunity for the WCCC to showcase the strength of our programs and the work ethic of our students, and this group represented both incredibly well.”