BHS Students Excel at DECA State Competition

Marketing students who are members of the Berkley High School DECA club had the opportunity to showcase their skills at this year's DECA State Career Development Conference, held in downtown Detroit's Huntington Center from March 14-16, 2024. The event brought together more than 4,200 students from all over the state of Michigan, who competed in various marketing events and activities. Berkley High School students walked away with 15 medals and four students moving on to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, California on April 25th.

While at the conference, students are focused on improving their leadership and professional skills, in hopes of making their way to the finalist stage. These students competed in a wide range of categories, including merchandising, business operations, community awareness, sales and school based enterprise, participating in presenting projects, role play and more. 

During the competition, students are placed into flights of 10-12 teams with the top two from each flight getting called on stage as finalists. The top team from each flight advances to Internationals.

Congratulations to the following students for earning medals at the State competition.

Test Medal

Samual George – Business Finance Series. In this event students are required to take a 100 point multiple choice test and perform two role-plays.

Finalist Medals

• Audra Bergman and Rikki Newman – Business Service Operations Research. In this event, students performed extensive research on a local business and prepared a presentation for improving the business based off of their findings.
• Nick Campbell, Daniel Richmond and Annabel Sturtz – Business Solutions Project
• Madelyn Grzegorczyk and Marlen Toma – Sales Project. This event incorporates project management tools used to not only create a plan but execute it and measure results.
• Monica Liverance and Niko Witek – Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan. In this event, students focused on the creation of a business plan.
• Alex Sims, Tayla Steczek and Bryn Wightman – Career Development Plan. This event incorporates project management tools used to not only create a plan but execute it and measure results.
• Sophia Yunker and Ella Hesano – Sports & Entertainment Operations Research. Qualified for International Competition. Students performed extensive research on a local business and prepared a presentation for improving the business based off of their findings.
• Francesca Haley and Hailey Serlin – School Based Enterprise Project. Qualified for International Competition. The school based enterprise project focuses on earning gold certification status for the school store by compiling an extensive report on the store’s complete operations.