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Ella Andersen, Online Editor
Originally published May 4, 2018
Sophomore Ellis Stock, senior Nina Adams, sophomore Elliott Randall, senior Beck Svaren, junior Mandy Risley, senior Sarah Martin and junior Michael Bryan making the DECA diamond out front of the internationals competition. (Photo courtesy of Beck Svaren)
DECA internationals brought seven students to Atlanta, Georgia this year on April 20. These students included seniors Beck Svaren, Nina Adams and Sarah Martin, as well as juniors Mandy Risley and Michael Bryan, and sophomores Ellis Stock and Elliott Randall.
The trip was for a competition, but it wasn’t all competing. “We went to Six Flags one day, we took a 100 question multiple choice test, that’s a third of your score,” Svaren said. The other two thirds of the score is based on either one role play, score multiplied by two, or two role plays.
“You have the preliminary round, and then if you advance, you do one more role play, and then they do a final first second third fourth, etc.” Svaren said.
The two sophomores on the trip, Randall and Stock, weren’t competing though. They participated in an academy, which means while everyone else is competing, they’re learning. Randall did an academy on team building, while Stock did an academy on leadership and how to lead our DECA chapter.
The school has never had students make it to the finals before, as it is only the top 10 from each category, and internationals have a lot of people competing in them. Most of the students come from Canada, but South Korea, Mexico, China and Puerto Rico were also represented this year.
This will be Svaren and Adams’ third trip to internationals, as well as Risley’s second. Bryan, who is a first year on DECA, placed first in his category at the state competition.
Although Atlanta was a hit, Adams claims that Orlando is the most fun location for internationals. “Orlando is cool because you do one full day at Disney World, then one day at Universal Studios, and we stayed in a really nice hotel in Orlando,” Adams said.
The DECA international completion rotates between 4 cities within the U. S. each year. “It’s Orlando, Nashville, Anaheim and Atlanta and they just rotate,” Adams said.
There were no students who made it to finals this year, but there’s lots of young members on DECA ready to take on the challenge.
