East Ridge High School students received several awards at the recent annual Florida DECA Career Development Conference. They were among more than 2,600 students from across the state who competed in hopes of representing Florida at the DECA International Career Development Conference.
DECA is a global, nonprofit student organization with more than 319,000 members. It prepares high school and college students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.
East Ridge students won the prestigious Diamond Level Chapter Award from Florida DECA for chapters that go above and beyond for the community and the school, and the Thrive Level Award from National DECA for being a premier chapter that helps students and the community.
Florida and National DECA recognized instructor Simone Seaton for her 20-year involvement with the organization, and The East Ridge Knights Market received the Gold Re-Certification Award from National DECA for having an entrepreneurial operation in a school setting. Through the market, students build management, supervision, and leadership skills by operating a school-based enterprise.
"The Knights Market is open before and after school," Mary Lamar, VP of sales and manager of the Knights Market explained. "We sell snacks, drinks, fresh baked cookies, and East Ridge apparel. The customers are mainly students and staff here at East Ridge, but we also bring a portable version of the market to our football games to sell the ERHS merchandise to parents."
The following students will represent East Ridge at the International Conference in Atlanta in April:
Ailyn Alicea, Xavier Cook, and Mary Lamar -- 2nd place in Project Management Sales Project
Michael Molczyk -- 4th place in Marketing Communications Roleplay
Rylan Witt -- 7th place in Restaurant and Food Service Roleplay
Annabel Bandelin and Carly Foll -- 7th place in Project Management Community Awareness Project
Gabriel Lievano -- 8th place in Financial Consulting Project
Naomi McGuire and Natalie Vincens-Tanko -- 8th place Project Management Financial Literacy Project
Ana Alvarez, Keira Conte, and Julie Sprovieri -- 9th place in Project Management Career Development Project
Robert Marting -- 9th place in Professional Selling Project
Orion Klee -- 10th place in Hotel Lodging Roleplay
Congratulations to all participants and best wishes to those moving on to the next level!
