A very important piece of Owatonna High School is Deca. In Deca you can do a lot of different events, such as, role plays, team and individual, prepared events (business plans), and innovation plans, etc. There are also state-only events like sales demonstrations and interviews. Some students who made it to state due to their scoring on their events recently attended the State Career Development Convention (SCDC).
As a result of SCDC 13 students from OHS were finalists at this event. The finalists include: Lowell Schultz, Eric Zhang, Attley Klemmensen, Dylann Norrid, Grace Mitchell, Jae Herzog, Amal Mohamed, Paige Pick, Leighton Nelson, Ramala Dahir, Cece Bauer, Norah Cederstrom and Mason Klecker. These students were excited to be placed as a finalist during this event because all 13 of them had a chance to advance to the next step, International Career Development (ICDC).
ICDC which is the final level of competition throughout the stages in deca. Before this there are districts, then to the state level, and then onto ICDC. At this event they compete in prepared events and role plays. This takes place in Atlanta Georgia, but there is a yearly rotation for the cities holding ICDC.
State Officer of Public Relations Amal Mohamed said, “I want to see more members of Owatonna DECA placed in the state which leads them to ICDC. I want my chapter to take glass and have more involvement nationwide. Representing Owatonna as District 1 officer was an amazing experience. Also serving as my chapter’s president really made me take leadership roles more seriously.”
Some of the big awards Owatonna students have received while at Deca State were:
First place Entrepreneurship Individual Series won by Lowell Schultz.
Second place Employment Interview won by Jae Herzog.
Third place School Based Enterprise Retail won by Norah Cederstrom and Mason Klecker.
Junior Lowell Schultz said, “I was honestly pretty shocked that I won. I was hoping for a 4th- or 5th-place finish, so when those were announced, I thought my chances were over. But they called Owatonna first, which was almost surreal, but it was awesome. Owatonna isn’t known for winning very much at the state level, so this was a huge accomplishment.”
Being at Deca State and winning these awards at a state event to represent Owatonna is very important to know, because these faces are the face of the Owatonna High School Deca community for the 25-26 school year. Getting an award at a state-wide event is extremely rewarding, especially getting top 3 in their events.
Sophomore Jae Herzog said, “I would be happy to. It felt amazing to get second at state because it meant all the hard work and preparation that I did leading up to state paid off. What I’m really looking forward to at ICDC is the experience itself, but also meeting new people and learning new skills that I can use in the future!”
After Deca State these three students are going to be attending ICDC in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of April. They will be competing in the same events they qualified for at Deca State.
Good luck to the three finalists continuing on to ICDC in Atlanta!
