DECA seniors Yvette Orlowski and Nickolas Welch qualified to attend the DECA International Career Development Conference from April 26th-29th in Orlando, Florida. They competed in the School-Based-Enterprise event at the Orange County Convention Center. The pair wrote a 25-page paper on the school store that qualified them for gold SBE certification. This allowed them to compete at the International conference. More than 26,000 high school students, teacher-advisors, business professionals, and alumni gathered for several days in Orlando, with a variety of different categories students participate in. (deca.org)
Orlowski and Welch’s ten-minute presentation focused on the Chief Connection School Store at Utica High. Their presentation focused on market planning; which includes customer profile, market research, and financial success of the school store. The duo also came up with a unique Lego theme to show customer profiles for the students, staff, and alumni. They used the quote from the The Lego Movie “Everything is cool when you are apart of a team” to showcase the school store’s teamwork atmosphere. The pair competed in total two times, the first being their semifinal run where they competed against forty teams in their heat. The second being the finals with twenty teams in their category.
“With our presentation, we used the Lego theme to help make our presentation more unique for the judges,” Welch said. “We got inspiration from last year’s group for School-Based Enterprise to create an engaging topic for the judges to resonate with. We used minifigs to represent the students, staff, and alumni that buy the merchandise in the school store.”
The awards ceremony at the DECA international conference is a worldwide event. With many awards being given out to high school students around the world. Orlowski and Welch were called up in the top ten, excited and nervous about what could happen.
“When we were called for top twenty I kind of expected it, but was nervous about it as well,” Orlowski said. “When it came to presenting for the finals both Nick and I were confident. At the award ceremony for the finals came around, I was shocked when we won, and it was surreal in the moment.”
Utica Marketing teacher and DECA adviser Dana Boice has been involved in the DECA program for 25 years. The journey of her DECA career started with being involved in DECA in her youth in college and high school. Since 2023, Boice has had students place second place in the School-Based-Enterprise event.
“Both Yvette and Nick put so much hard work into the entire School-Based-Enterprise presentation. From not placing at states to getting first place at nationals, they continue to impress me with their work ethic,” Boice said. “When their names were announced at the finals, I was so shocked I cried, but I was also beaming with joy because I have gotten so close with both of them over the years.”
Winning 1st place and earning the DECA glass at the International Conference is a huge accomplishment with gained experience in the field of business that can propel students to continue striving for their goals in a respective field. For the first time in Utica High’s history, members of DECA got first place in their respective category.
