PCHS DECA advances to international competition

By Haley Slover

Six Pendleton County High School DECA students have advanced to the International Career Development Conference and competition April 26 to 39 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

They are Lincoln Meyer, who finished in second place in the Business Services Marketing category in the state DECA conference March 3 in Louisville; Callie Seedle and Jaren Ashcraft, who finished second in Business Solutions Project; and Kendra Hess, Hannah Cahill and Delaney Thompson, second in Career Development Plan.

DECA — formerly known as Distributive Education Clubs of America — is a nonprofit career and technical student organization focused on preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.

Pendleton County High School DECA took 26 young people to compete in the state DECA conference. Each student competed against the best of the best from the commonwealth.

Eighteen of the local students made it to the finalist level, where they were in the running to qualify to compete at the international level against the top three competitors from all 50 states and several countries.

Besides the six students in advancing to the international competition, other PCHS students finishing in the top 10 in the state were Adyson Dotson, fourth place, and Miles Collins, Johnathon Brossart, Kamden O’Hara and Hunter Keeton, all sixth place.

“All 26 students gave it their all and represented Pendleton County well. Fun was had by all and we are looking forward to the next level of competition,” Haley Slover, PCHS teacher and DECA sponsor, said.

“Special thank you to Louisa Dunn for chaperoning, Pendleton County Chamber of Commerce and Jill Cahill for donating snacks for our trip and Jason Gregg for treating the chapter to a pizza night. We wouldn’t make it this far without the continued support of our school and community partners.”