Husky DECA brings hardware home from state event

Husky DECA garnered 11 top-three finishes at the Minnesota Collegiate DECA career development competition Feb. 18-19 in Brooklyn Park.

And, the team earned the Diamond Chapter for the third time in its three-year existence. The award recognizes community service and campus involvement.

Eleven other entries earned top-eight finishes.

“Two-thirds of our team placed in the top three,” said Craig H. Wilson, team adviser and assistant professor of accounting. “Everyone made finals.”

Andrew Clauson (Morris, Illinois) was named an at-large state officer for 2016-17.

Minnesota Collegiate DECA has more than 40 chapters. Collegiate DECA prepares students for careers by integrating classroom skills with real-world experiences.

The student-driven organization puts an entrepreneurial focus on five academic areas: Marketing and sales; arts, communications and technology; business management and administration; finance and accounting; and hospitality and tourism.

Students can choose from among 24 competitive events. Most events are role-play cases involving one or two students who have 30 minutes (one person) or one hour (two people) to prepare a response and present to an acting judge. Judges are business and industry professionals.

Chapter president Kelsey Jones, Sartell, will lead a contingent to the Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference April 16-20 in Washington D.C. 

Earning first-place nods were:

Claire Schroepfer (St. Cloud), banking financial services 

Taylor Biskey (Sauk Rapids) and Trevor Voss (Sauk Rapids), business research 

Alexa Dieterichs (Ramsey) and Abby McDonald (Ramsey), sports and entertainment marketing

Mike Voorhees (Maple Grove), retail management

Second-place awards went to:

Chloe Hoeft (Maple Grove) and Kaitlyn Pellinen (Elko), business-to-business marketing

Kelsey Jones (Sartell), human resources management

Shelby Ridinger (Cloquet) and Trevor Buchholz (Princeton), emerging technology marketing strategies 

The third-place winners were:

Jared M. Carlson (Brooklyn Park), emerging technology marketing strategies 

Alexa Dieterichs (Ramsey), advertising campaign

Brittany Huikko (Buffalo) and Claire Schroepfer (St. Cloud), financial statement analysis

Derek Meltzer (Plymouth), sales management meeting

Awards and Leadership Roles

Hoeft was selected as a state officer for the Central Region for 2016-17. Dieterichs completed her term as an at-large officer.

“She (Dieterichs)  took on a particularly arduous task with the loss of three officers over the course of the year,” Wilson said. “She and Andrea Rothstein from SCTCC (St. Cloud Community and Technical College) handled all the officer duties at the state conference.”

Earning leadership awards were Dieterichs, Jones and McDonald.

Collegiate DECA has more than 5,400 chapters across the nation with about 215,000 members. DECA formerly stood for Distributive Education Clubs of America.