Owatonna DECA Students Qualify for National Conference

Several Owatonna High School students will attend the national DECA conference in Anaheim, Calif., April 25-29 after their performance at state.

Owatonna adviser Scott Pierce reports that Amanda Collins, Dan Keller, Amy Oldenburg, Katie Segler, Sam Schuster and Ivette Torres will represent OHS at the national event for the Owatonna chapter's work in the membership campaign, community service and promotional work. Braeden Meier, Nick Sande and Erica Svenby will attend the School-Based Enterprise Academy to show tactics used at the OHS school store.

The national event will bring together students from around the United States, plus Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Guam. Minnesota boasts about 3,500 DECA students. National numbers exceed 200,000.

Fifty-six Owatonna students participated in the Minnesota DECA State Conference March 19-21 in Minneapolis. Pierce reports some made in to the finals in their events. Lauren Davis and Toria Koch reached the finals in the creative marketing plan event, Roshan Poduval in employment interview-entry level and Kenna West in sales demonstration-general lines event. Oldenburg and Torres received an award for outstanding members of their DECA chapter.

Torres was also the recent winner of the emerging leader award, which recognizes a student for studying marketing, finance and management for their academic preparation, community work and leadership through their DECA chapter.

DECA ties together classroom learning with simulated real-life business and marketing scenarios in more than 50 events focusing on finance, hospitality, entrepreneurship and other related fields.