On March 1, 2023, Middletown DECA students participated in the annual Connecticut DECA State Career Development Conference. DECA is an international student organization of approximately 200,000 high school and college students centered around Marketing, Management, Hospitality, and Finance. Middletown DECA, founded over 45 years ago, is one of our state’s oldest co-curricular student organizations and has been recognized the past 11 years as a top international chapter by the DECA Inc. and the Marketing program has held the #1 ranking by the state Department of Education for the final four years of the rankings.
At this year’s conference, approximately 700 students from around the state took part in competitive events focused on Marketing, Management, Hospitality and Finance. The competitive events consisted of rigorous content-based testing and performing case study problem solving virtual presentations to industry judges. A wide variety of different events were available for students to choose from, all centered on career pathways and interests. Examples of events include business finance, marketing management, human resources management, business law, ethical decision making, entrepreneurship, and advertising campaigns. A typical event had 20 student competitors this year.
Middletown students once again shined with an amazing 44 student winners.
The students’ successes are a result of not only their hard work and dedication, but also because of the unwavering support from our cherished alumni, parents, community members and organizations, MPS central office staff, student support services, library/media professionals, university partners like Johnson and Wales, the business community such as Men’s Wearhouse, school colleagues, Assistant Superintendent of Administration Jen Cannata, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Stacey McCann, Director of Innovation and Grants Natalie Forbes, Superintendent Dr. Alberto Vázquez Matos, Mayor Benjamin Florsheim, Common Council, Middlesex Chamber, and Board of Education.
The students earning 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in their respective category qualify to attend the International Career Development Conference (ICDC)held in Orlando, Florida, in April. At ICDC, almost 16,000 attendees from around the globe will compete in the same career-related competitive events.
Please help us congratulate the following students on their hard work and success:
1st Place and International Qualifier
- Yana Mikulska
- Michael Czyz
- Justin Rogers
- Doris Biney
- Syeda Hoque
- Jack Weitz
- Miles Wrann
- Ryan Battista
- Alex Cyr
- Kevin Borrelli
- Abigail Kriger
- Kaci LaBella
- Lily Collins
- Nana Obeng
2nd Place and International Qualifier
- Daniella Ikonn
- Madeline Wactowski
- Amy Wiknik
- Jesse Baldwin
- Matthew Bogli
- Michael Gennaro
- Gianluca Latina
- Natalie Brennan
- Gabe LaBella
- Sydney Tuttle
- Sarah Gray
- Jenna Carfora
- Ezgi Mus
- Anastasia Levesque
- Diego Carillo
- Maxim Ellis
- Luke Weisenberg
3rd Place and International Qualifier
- Anisha Douglas
- Nissi Asante
- Mia Annino
4th/5th Place Medalists
- Seth Varrato
- Emily Pulino
- Caroline Rancourt
- Eleisha Douglas
- Brooke Hartzell
- Aaryan Gautam
- Evan Langdon
- Serenity Cooper
- Francesca Congelosi
- John Ziomek
To keep apprised of all the wonderful accomplishments of our students, follow us on Instagram and Twitter @middletowndeca
Thank you again for your continued support.
Dave Reynolds, Vivian Sheen, and Lee Schwartzman
DECA Advisors
An enormous thank you to Dave Reynolds for providing this story!