From Monday, February 27 to Wednesday, March 1, 25 NVOT students attended the three-day New Jersey DECA State Conference at the Harrah’s Convention Center in Atlantic City. 

DECA provides students with the opportunity to participate in 59 event categories and experience what it feels like to be put in the business world. The team had four State Finalists; Ayush Damwani, Reese Taplin, Will Poggi, and Inho Kee. Of those State

 Finalists, Inho Kee will advance to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida, this coming April.

The competitions required students to put themselves in the shoes of an investor, marketer, or entrepreneur. Considering the rigor of the competitions, club advisor Antonio Marino requires students to be currently enrolled or have taken in the past a business class. Marino said that “he is so proud of all of the DECA students who choose to put themselves out there in order to learn and build on real-world skills that will serve them well in their future business careers.”

The process of being able to qualify for the state conference and competition is difficult on its own. The event itself requires participants to use their

 personal time to prepare in an effort to qualify and make it to nationals. “It’s not super difficult, but definitely requires you to put in a lot of time outside the club to prepare for the exam and presentations,” said junior Krystal Kymn.

Out of the 25 NVOT students competing, junior Inho Kee qualified to advance to the national conference and competition that is scheduled to take place in April in Orlando, Florida.