Thursday, March 8, 2018

Sparta DECA Succeeds in Atlantic City, Moves to Nationals

Written by: Elise Kerim 

Sparta DECA traveled to Atlantic City to attend the DECA State Development Career Conference on Tuesday, February 27th and returned home on Thursday, March 1st

DECA is an extra-curricular activity for marketing students. At the competitions, they are able to pitch ideas in the categories of hospitality and tourism, finance, marketing and communications, and business management.

On Tuesday night, those who wrote 30-page business and community service proposals provided a presentation to a judge about the project they had initiated and executed. The following day, finalist rounds took place. 

After presentations had wrapped, the four thousand state participants attended the DECA Opening Ceremony. Sparta took part in New Jersey DECA’s State Community Service Project, “Bucks for Books”, donating money from their infamous Krispy Kreme fundraiser and received formal recognition on stage.

Wednesday was filled with competitive events. It closely mimicked any other school day, with students waking up as early as 6:30am as nerves settled in hopes of doing their best in their events. Students in individual role-play events had to compete twice ; team role- play events had one round. The top eight in each category were called back to take part in another role-play scenario as part of finalist rounds. 

Finalist rounds for thirty page papers also took place on Wednesday. Finalist rounds for all competitive events wrapped around 7pm, with the DECA Mini-Awards session taking place at 8pm. The mini-awards recognized students who ranked high in their area test or performed well on one of their individual role plays. 

Role play scores and the score received on the area tests are averaged to determine placement and eligibility for DECA Nationals.

Thursday morning was the Grand Awards Ceremony, which determined overall State winners that would be heading to the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The Sparta community was extremely passionate about their hard work and the work of their peers, being one of the loudest cheering sections overall. The winners that will be jetting off to Georgia in late April are as follows:

1st place, Entrepreneurship Promotion Project
  • Danielle Francescutto
  • Kate Nash
  • Grace Sander
    Francescutto, Nash, and Sander taught middle school students who partake in the TREP$ program all of the aspects on how to efficiently become an entrepreneur in modern day, maximizing modern marketing and business techniques.

    2nd place, Quick Serve Restaurant Management
Daniel Baker

2nd place, Human Resource Management
Victoria Heim

2nd place, Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan
John “JD” Macones
Macones introduced audible teddy bears for children fighting cancer to ensure they hear encouraging words from their loved ones during their battle.

3rd place, Financial Literacy Promotion Plan
  • Hannah Fagersten
  • Shelby Kapp
  • Elise Kerim
    The team of Fagersten, Kapp, and Kerim hosted an interactive and educational financial aid class to assist students going through the tedious financial aid process.

    5th place, Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan
  • V aleria Molina
  • Erica Ambrosino
  • Rebecca Miller
    Together, Molina, Ambrosino, and Miller proposed a revival of singing competition show American Idol by generating excitement for future seasons while partnering up with charities

    6th place, International Business Plan
  • Isabella Horowitz
  • Caitlin Russo
  • Esha Iyer
    The sophomore team pitched a prospective marketing and business plan of opening a Disney World park in Dubai. 
  • 6th place, Professional Selling
    Olivia Navarro
Students who competed in Finalist rounds are as follows:

Creative Marketing Project
  • Bayleigh Takacs
  • Kelli Vogel
    Lifelong sports players themselves, Takacs and Vogel divulged into the decline of youth sports in Sparta Township and proposed their solution.

    Community Service Project
  • Victoria Heim
  • Kaitlyn Nyhan
    Nyhan and Heim worked with Sparta High School’s Special Education department to plan a dance for the students.

    Public Relations Project
Sylvia Sochacki

Sochacki hosted a literature night for children in the Sparta Elementary schools. Along with reading and coloring, children got to enjoy the star lab.

Financial Consulting
Josh Williams

Franchise Business Plan
Blake Aschenbach

Hospitality and Tourism Research Project
  • Daniel Baker
  • Stelios Kroudis
    Baker and Kroudis created a plan to increase customer satisfaction in local restaurant, Il Porto. 

    Click here to view photos.


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