At the state competition in late February, Algonquin’s Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) club took home three first place finishes with 19 individuals advancing to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) which will be held in Orlando, Florida from April 25 to April 29.
Senior Rushil Singh took home first place in his category, “Apparel and Accessories Marketing,” at the state competition. Senior Claire Devlin was a first-place winner in her category, “Business Services Marketing.” DECA co-president junior Lily Dumont won first place in her category of Food Marketing. The other 16 students qualified for ICDC by placing in the top seven in their respective categories. The tension built as the winners were announced, starting from seventh place to the grand reveal of first place. Up until the final award, finalists were unsure if they had won it all or missed ICDC completely.
The first-place finishers all had similar reactions to being on top of the DECA world. Singh felt great about the win and is already getting ready for ICDC.
“I was really excited and kind of surprised at the same time, but it felt good that my work and studying was paying off,” Singh said. “I’m going to study and prepare a lot and try to place as a finalist, and hopefully help my friends who are going with me along the way.”
Although caught by surprise, Devlin was thrilled about her win.
“I was very happy when I won, and I definitely wasn’t expecting it, but I thought the role plays had gone pretty well at the competition, so I was happy that the hard work had paid off,” Devlin said.
Dumont was on pins and needles throughout the ceremony.
“I was honestly kind of surprised by the way they did it this year,” Dumont said. “I didn’t find out I made it until the very end, so it’s either you make it, or you’re just done. I was kind of surprised and then just relieved that I made it, but also happy,”.
While in Orlando, competitors will get to enjoy the warm weather, Disney parks and the once-in-a-lifetime experience that is offered on this trip.
“We fly in on Friday, April 25th, and that’s usually our fun day. We don’t have any competition stuff that day. Saturday is our opening session, so we can do fun things in the morning, we go to Universal, and then we have our opening session at the convention center in the evening,” Hessemeyer said. “Monday night we have DECA night at Universal so they get to go to Universal with all the other DECA kids, and meet people from all over the country, which is so much fun,”.
Most people who travel to ICDC go for the trip and experience, but only a few are there to truly compete at the highest level with their sights set on winning.
Junior co-president Edie Garton has made it to ICDC for the third year in a row, along with seniors Justin Rotaru, Rushil Singh and Ally O’Hearn, who have also made it to ICDC for the third consecutive year. Freshman Aanya Mittal has also made ICDC, the only freshman competing this year.
“My goal for ICDC and my goal for all the kids who go to ICDC this year is to get glass, which is kind of a saying where the trophy at ICDC is like a piece of glass,” Dumont said. “Everyone wants to get glass. We don’t wanna just stop at ICDC. We want to place and we want to win.”
