During late April through early May, the five DECA state finalists from SCHS (Mackenzie Bufford, Jayden Carey, Benton Dietrich, Sarah Gingras, and Natasha Johns) embarked on a journey to Anaheim, California, to participate in ICDC (International Career Development Conference) along with 23,000 people from all around the world. At ICDC, the students all took part in different categories for this competition and had to cover certain standards throughout their presentations, tests, and role plays.

“I didn’t have anyone make it to the finals, but just making it to this level of competition was a huge accomplishment,” DECA Sponsor Judith Simmons said, “they represented our school well.” 

Although the competition was tough, the DECA students were happy to participate. 

“Competing was very fun. It was always full of very competitive feelings, but it was so much fun,” Senior DECA member Natasha Johns said. 

The DECA group was very supportive of each other throughout every competition. 

“We cheered each other on, we tried to support one another and provide encouragement before competing. We had a lot of bonding as a group,” Johns said.

Sophomore DECA member Jayden Carey shared similar opinions with Johns. 

“Everybody did amazing, they were all very supportive. Everything was great.”