The Littleton DECA program was largely successful at the State Competition in Colorado Springs last weekend. LHS had 20 finalists and 13 qualifiers for ICDC- the national competition that will be held in Nashville, Tennessee this summer.
Those who qualified at districts competed at the Broadmoor in written and role-play events. Students who scored well initially (top 10 in written events and top 12 in role-play) became finalists. STudents who placed in the top 6 of written events and top 5 of role play events qualified for ICDC.
State Finalists
Makayla Franklin and Jack Fidler (Senior officers): 3rd Place, Chapter of Excellence
Eliska Martinez (Senior): 9th Place, Apparel and Accessories Marketing
Addi Vander Velde (Junior): 8th Place, Financial Consulting
Makayla Franklin and Amelia Sacco (Seniors): 9th Place Hospitality and Tourism
Max Villa-Franzman and Mia Maxwell (Seniors) : 12th Place, Entrepreneurship
ICDC Qualifiers
Ashlyn Farnham (Freshmen): 1st Place, Principles of Finance
Grady Redding (Sophomore): 2nd Place, Principles of Finance
Aden Becker, Tinley Enzminger, Morgan Kelly (Sophomores): 2nd Place, Integrated Marketing Campaign
Ellie Fuchs (Senior): 4th Place, Community Awareness Project
Hans Romine and Eliska Martinez (Seniors): 5th Place, Community Awareness Project
Ashlyn Farnham, McKenzie Pullar, Kylah Adams (Freshmen): 5th Place, Integrated Marketing Campaign
Ava El-Jammal and Sophia Kelley (Sophomores): 5th, Principles of Marketing
Lane Greenly (Sophomore): 6th Place, Principles of Marketing
The success of underclassmen such as Ashlyn, Grady, Tinley, Morgan and Aden shows a new trend in the DECA program of underclassmen being widely successful in competitions, where traditionally only upperclassmen have been able to make it to ICDC. Next year the program will certainly benefit from the success and experience of newer members leading the club at LHS.
Ashyln Farnham stood out among her peers, not only becoming the first Freshmen to qualify for ICDC, but also by becoming State Champion in Principles of Finance. Farnham can only compete in one event at the International competition, and has chosen to focus on Princples of Finance.
I am just excited that I have the opportunity to go. It’s not very often that freshman make it to Internationals, and certainly not that they win their events, so I’m just going to try to do my best to prepare for every situation so I can do the best that I can at Internationals.
Ashyln Farnham
I joined DECA because my marketing teacher said that it was a fun opportunity that I would enjoy, but it’s certainly grown on me and I really like it. I would like to explore different events. Finance is just a small cluster of what DECA has to offer- there’s different branches you can go into and I’d like to see what some of those are.
Farnham
Ashyln says she plans to continue participating in DECA all four years, and is certainly an example for current and future members.
Sophomore Ava El-Jammal placed 5th in her written event, Principles of Marketing. For this event, her and her partner developed a business plan for Study Life, an app designed for college students. El-Jammal hopes to improve her work before ICDC, and is working on developing a prototype.
One of the most useful applications is for streamlined studying for large exams. “When you’re going back for midterms and finals and when you don’t remember what was written down or what you’re notes said you can highlight the text and you can be able to listen to your teacher’s recording so you know what [the professor is] expecting you to…know,” said Jammal.
“We created an app and software called Study Life. It’s pretty much just an app where you have all your textbooks, presentations, lectures and notes all in one place….There are also extra databases, trusted resources, all different things so it’s all on one app and in one place. Being more organized college students was our goal”
Ava El-Jammal
Littleton’s DECA Presidents Makayla Franklin and Jack Fidler placed 3rd in Chapter of Excellence, which is an event where officers must communicate why their chapter is so successful. Senior Fidler pointed part of Littleton’s success as a chapter to its charity work; winning most food donated to charity at 2,000 pounds.
We did the anti-bullying later haters campaign where everyone had to make a pledge against cyber bullying and then we get to write about it and talk about it and make stickers. We rocked it
Eliska Martinez
Senior Ellie Fuchs placed 4th in Community Awareness Project for her development of a Krav Maga self-defense course at Littleton that gave girls in the school and community skills to feel safe.
Also placing in Community Awareness Project was seniors Eliska Martinez and Hans Romine who developed their digital campaign, Later Haters, an anti-bullying pledge campaign. 1,2000 students and community members in total signed the pledge.
With an unprecedented number of underclassmen finding success at State, the future of the program looks bright.
