After seeing success at the district conference, Orono DECA moved on to state looking for more victories. Orono had a great outcome at the state district as well with many students progressing to the state conference.

After 63 Orono students presented their projects to the judges, 19 progressed to the national conference held in Nashville, Tennessee. The state conference was on March 6-8 in downtown Minneapolis. Students presented their hard work to the judges with hopes to move on to the national conference. The hard work has paid off for these students as nine groups moved onto nationals. 11 seniors and eight juniors, more than Orono DECA has seen in the past.

On April 22, the Nationals bound students left for Nashville, Tennessee. From April 23-26, students were in Nashville preparing and presenting at the national conference.  This conference was similar to the state and district portion being that they presented their same project to a different set of judges. Once they present they were given a score on the same grading scale from the district and state conferences.

The national conference includes high school DECA students from all around the country. Groups participating were also from Canada and other countries from all around the globe.

Orono DECA had outstanding accomplishments at the national conference as well. Five groups made it into the final round, with two groups placing top ten and three groups placed 2nd in their events.  

Second place finishers include Rachel Fay and Hank Seward in public relations, and Cammie Parrott and Sam Sustacek with an independent business plan.  The other top ten finishers are Claire Hrusovsky and Kate Koch with an international business plan, Ella Langer and Morgan Marxer with buying and merchandising operations event, and Maddy Ross and Ellie O’Brien with a creative market research project.

The hard work from all the DECA students has shown through all of the success in state and nationals.