This past weekend, April 23rd to 26th, the Edina High School DECA program traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to compete at ICDC: the International Career Development Conference. This year, EHS DECA took 9 students to the conference to compete in an assortment of events. Students either competed in on the spot “role play” presentations, where they would get a prompt with 10 minutes to prepare and then give a presentation, or in “written events,” which are projects that they have put countless hours into since September.

        “My favorite part about competition is the opportunity it gives you to share your ideas in a real world situation, but I also really love getting to bond with the other EHS students that come on the trip,” said senior Megan Docherty, two time national participant.

Students left last Saturday, and spent the majority of the weekend in competition. Each student had their own time for competition that consisted of a test, presentation(s), and an award ceremony. Instead of treating the trip as a vacation, the students dedicated themselves to being as successful as possible. “I came to win. If you don’t think you can win, you are never going to win. I always thought that I needed to be confident. One thing I came up with during my competition: hard work doesn’t equal success, but success does equal hard work,” said junior Jada Lee.  Each student was competing against 150-200 teams in every event.

Three groups made it to finals, and Edina did take home a glass trophy. Junior Will Lively took second place in Restaurant and Foodservice Management Role Play. “I studied, but you have no idea what you are going to get when you get there… You are stressed out for three days, and then winning is just really rewarding, considering how many teams you compete against,” said Lively.

Until next September, the DECA competitions are at an end. DECA advisors Alicia Halker and Ryan Gallagher shared their outlooks for competition next year.  “Our DECA program has a lot of young talent, and I am excited to see what next year holds. It’ll probably be sunny with a chance of rain,” said Gallagher.

“I am excited to see students taking on written events who haven’t done them before, and I am excited to see the returning underclassmen come back stronger than ever!” said Halker.

“DECA has been such a huge part of my life, and I will be sad to leave it. It has given me so many great memories, influenced my college plans, and helped me break my nervousness when I speak. I am going to miss the community, but I know I will definitely be back to visit!” said Docherty.