The DGS DECA club went to Anaheim, California on April 29 to go against other competing schools at DECA International Career Development Conference. DECA is a competitive club that helps prepare high school and college students for careers in business, marketing, finance and managing.

Senior Kenny Kruse and senior Chandana Sooranahalli teamed up together and competed with their Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan at the International Level. Kruse explained more about what exactly they were competing with.

“We created a product and made up a business that would sell the product. We had to present this project to judges asking for an investment and explaining the information of our product and how their money would be used,” Kruse said.

The competition was broken apart into specific events: individual, partnerships and written events. When the competition in the event is finished, all finalists are brought back together to compete again. The goal of the second round is to make top ten and top three.

Even though the time spent in California involved a lot of hard work to make the top three, the DECA organization made sure that there were some stress-relieving experiences.

“In the beginning of the conference, Echosmith performed… DECA [also] rented out Universal Studios Theme Park and then the next night we went to Disneyland,” Kruse said.

Kruse and Sooranahalli placed 4th in their event at the international level, making it be the highest placement in District 99 history.