Rhinelander students compete at DECA state

Thirteen Rhinelander High School students traveled to Lake Geneva in late February to compete at the Wisconsin DECA State Career Development Conference. According to a School District of Rhinelander press release, DECA is an organization that helps prepare students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA has events from Finance and Banking Systems to Sports and Entertainment Marketing and includes both team and individual events. At the state competition, students had to take a 100-question event-specific test as well as an economics test. They also performed two role plays in which the student is given a business situation and must act it out to resolve the issue with a judge. Medals are awarded to students for earning high scores in their tests, on either of their role plays, and for placing in the top ten of their event.
Three students were recognized on stage for their performance in the Community Service Giving Project; Josh Haselton, Sam Caselton, & Kam Kostrova. Also competing at the state level were: Dom Hakala (Apparel & Accessories), Hank Kowieski (Sports & Entertainment Marketing), Soren Duman (Personal Financial Literacy), Grant Gremban (Sports & Entertainment Marketing), Amelia MacIntyre & Lexi Terzinski (Hospitality Team Decision Making), Emmaline Kramsvogel (Hotel & Lodging), Katie Tran & Addy Stobel (Business Law & Ethics Team Decision Making), and Alexa Segova (Business Services).
Rhinelander DECA was also recognized for its accomplishments as a chapter. The group received recognition for its Community Service Campaign, which included Acts of Kindness, General Contributions to Charity, 100 Hours, Top 5 MDA Contributor, Color a Smile, and Trick or Can, and were recognized for the Thrive Level Chapter Promotion Campaign, Thrive Level Chapter Campaign, and Wisconsin Gold Chapter.
Overall, Rhinelander DECA had a very successful dtate conference and hopes to continue their involvement in the community for years to come. According to the release, advisor Mischell Fryar was very impressed by the hard work of all of the competitors, many of whom were competing at the state level for the first time.