After a year of preparation, DECA went to Salt Lake City, Utah for the international competition and returned with one top ten finalist. DECA sent 34 students to the state competition and 12 to the international competition. Senior Josh Burns placed in the top ten as a grand finalist in the international competition.

“The competition went very good and we took a great group of students,” Mr. Steve Cross said. “Just making it to that level is a huge accomplishment and we represented Francis Howell Central very well.”

According to senior Grant Koehler, the group had not only a lot of success in Salt Lake City, but also had a lot of fun.

“Internationals was amazing,” Koehler said. “We had a lot of camaraderie among advisors and qualifiers. We had an amazing time.”

Throughout the year, DECA did several community service projects, leadership conferences, gave a lot of resources to charity and competed in many competitions. The final event for DECA will be helping friends of children charity make baskets to hand out.

“We are closing the year with a charity, community service activity,” Mr. Cross said. “We had a very good year this year with the largest DECA chapter in the state. It’s been a goal for the past few years and we finally attained it this year.”

As for next year, Mr. Cross plans to keep improving the DECA program by hoping for the DECA 10 program to return, that allows sophomores to get involved. New officers will be elected at the beginning of next year and will continue to make goals as the new school year approaches.