MN DECA is an Association of Marketing Students.  Members participate in written projects, role plays, testing, and interviews.  Over 2,000 students participated in the MN State Conference from throughout the state of MN.

There was a great amount of kids that went to DECA districts from Owatonna, a little over half of them qualified for state. Forty nine Owatonna High School DECA members attended the MN DECA State Conference on March 2-4 at the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency Hotel. DECA advisor Scott Pierce said “It went well, we had nine people make finals and some qualify for nationals, which was a good outcome.” Reaching the finals in their events were:  Jack Livingston and Kaitlyn Seykora in Finance Operations Research, Matt Van Ommeren in Business Finance Series Event who had also received an award for his Finance written test , Jeff Johnson, Kelsey Schimdt, and Ethan Pfiefer all in the Entrepreneurship Business Plan, Brodie Thiede in Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling, Alix Schallau in Sales Demonstration – Soft Lines, Timon Higgins in Quick Service Restaurant Management Series, and Morgan Malo, Natalie Thomas, and Taylor Gaveske in Marketing Plan – Product. Isaac Torres and Kaeli Domino received awards for Outstanding DECA members in their chapter and the school store was named a Gold Certified School Based Enterprise. Co-President Kaeli Domino said, “I was honored when I found out that I received such a prestigious award, it was a great way to end my senior year of DECA.”

Other OHS DECA attendees were:  Lydia Anez, Maria Golberg, Jenna Rhoades, Natalie Thomas, Elizabeth Louks, Izzy Lehrer, Anna Kelto, Holly Bloomenrader, Qahir Lakha, Maureen Gleason, Val Griffin, Joey Smith, Nate Clark, Cole Butler, Stephen Leon, David Roanhorse, Luke Holzerland, Ghoutham Manokar, Joe Nelson, Haden Holland, Garrett Olson, Peter Jones, Mike Zappa, Martin Gleason, Luke Wanous, Anna Redman, Emily Emanuelson, Lauren Stewart, Lauren Glynn, Olivia Olland, Margaret Sager, Jackie Warehime, Maria Versteeg, Rachel McCaughey, Kalley Schwab, Amy Filzen. Pierce said, “Overall we have some really awesome officers that did a lot of recruiting which resulted in a lot of numbers this year, so I would say it was a successful year.”