



BOURNE — The Bourne High School DECA Chapter is celebrating its successful first State Career Development Conference (SCDC) where seven student members competed among thousands of their peers.
From March 7-9, the students attended SCDC at the Marriott Copley and Hynes Convention Center in Boston. They joined more than 3,500 students at this year’s conference who participated in more than 50 competitive categories related to marketing, hospitality, finance and entrepreneurship.
Dhyan Patel scored in the top three on the Marketing Cluster Written Exam. Peter Scannell and JT Luce represented BHS in the Financial Consulting event, while Alex Stowe and Muskan Patel promoted the Big Nick’s Ride event and fundraiser in the Integrated Marketing Campaign category.
Sofia Halunen and Lily Russell, along with their teammates from Bedford High School, earned gold in DECA’s Quiz Bowl and qualified for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Anaheim, California in April.
In addition to the Quiz Bowl qualifier spots earned by Halunen and Russell, Bourne High School can send four more students to ICDC through Leadership & Chapter Campaigns.
“The State Conference was an outstanding achievement for our new chapter and we are so proud of all of the students who participated in DECA’s competitive events portion this year,” Bourne High School DECA Advisor Monice Maurice said. “We are looking forward to building on our success this year and continuing to grow our chapter.”
The Bourne High School DECA Chapter was formed with 30 founding student members at the start of the school year. Fourteen members chose to take part in competitive events and attended the chapter’s first competition at the District 8 Conference in January.
A central part of DECA is the opportunity to attend leadership and competitive conferences around the state and country throughout the year. These conferences give members a realistic insight into the industry and an opportunity to engage with professionals and demonstrate their knowledge.
At competitive conferences, students choose to compete in role-play, scenario-based events; written and prepared events; or online events. Dozens of competitive event options are available to students, allowing them to compete within the DECA Career Cluster they are most interested in. Students then work through their role-play or present their written project in front of judges who are industry professionals and/or DECA alumni.
Competitions begin at the District level where students compete against peers from other high schools in the area. Competitors can advance to the State level and then to the International level.
About DECA:
DECA is a nonprofit high school business and marketing organization that prepares young leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. DECA serves both high school and college students with over 250,000 members and 4,000 chapters internationally.
DECA prepares members to be college and career-ready, helping members develop skills in problem-solving and leadership. The organization supports classroom instruction and connects schools to real-world experiences, helping students apply their learning through project-based activities that require creative solutions with practical outcomes in an authentic business context.
To learn more about DECA, visit www.deca.org and www.madeca.org.
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