Algonquin DECA dominated the district competition at the DCU Center in Worcester on Jan. 10, with 52 students placing in the top three of their category and 91 qualifying for the state competition.

DECA is a club that prepares emerging business leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. According to the DECA website, there are 3,500 high school chapters and about 215,000 members across the country. 

“[DECA] gives kids the ability to problem solve, critically think, be community-oriented and academically prepared,” DECA adviser Patricia Riley said. “The growth they have, both personally and academically, is tremendous.”

Algonquin had outstanding success at the competition with close to 50 percent of participants qualifying for the next round of competition.

A total of 52 students placed first, second or third in one of the six main categories: business management, finance, marketing, hospitality and tourism, entrepreneurship and personal finance literacy.

Freshman Rajat Lakkapragada came in third place for Principles of Finance and moved onto States.

“I was very excited, but not really nervous, unlike most people,” Lakkapragada said. “I was confident; I wanted to move on to States.”

Senior Kevin Tucker returned to the district competition this year in Business Finance.

“I made it to the state conference last year,” Tucker said. ”This year, I was more motivated to make it to the national competition.”

However, a lot of students aren’t going to the state competition. Freshman Sadie Candela and her partner freshman Katie Cullen weren’t able to qualify.

“I thought we did good in our role play, even though it was our first time,” Candela said. ”We’ve been studying, so we were prepared, but I guess the other teams just did better. At least we know what it will be like for next year.”

DECA will continue meetings as they prepare to take on the state competition in Boston on Feb. 27-29.