King Philip DECA Officers at the States Award Ceremony from left to right: Kristina Conlon, Cole Breen, Ajae Olsen, Jarred Curran, Samantha Asperelli, Ahunna James, Audrey Leonard, Ryan Boucher, Jaclyn Anderson, Courtney Keswick, and Riley Abrams. (Photo courtesy King Philip Regional School District) 
The KP DECA chapter’s first in-person event of the year was watching the State Career Development Conference Awards. (Photo courtesy King Philip Regional School District)
NORFOLK — Superintendent Paul Zinni, King Philip DECA Marketing Coordinator James Dow and King Philip DECA Vice President of Marketing Riley Abram are pleased to announce that King Philip DECA qualified a state-high of 27 written projects to compete at DECA’s Virtual International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in April.
The State Career Development Conference was held virtually on Thursday, March 18 and a total of 52 King Philip students qualified to compete at ICDC. Any student who finished in the top five of their category automatically qualified for the conference.
King Philip had seven projects place in first, seven projects place in second, three projects place in third, four projects place in fourth and six projects place in fifth.
“I am so proud of our students and the countless hours that they have spent perfecting these projects,” said Superintendent Zinni. “More than half of our DECA chapter members will be competing in the final round of the competition and I wish them success as they move forward.”
The following is a list of the King Philip individual students and teams who qualified (including category and place) who will represent the school at ICDC:
First-place winners:
- Russell Kitsis, Business Operations, first
- Finn Meroski, Luke Pfeiffer and John Pfeiffer, Project Management, first
- Anthony Zappala, Colin Wesley and Connor O’Neil, Entrepreneurship, first
- Rasya Bollu, Entrepreneurship, first
- Sydney O’Shea, Entrepreneurship, first
- Kayla Simas, Ava Lanza and Julia Lanza, Integrated Marketing, first
- Amelia Penny, Integrated Marketing, first
Second-place winners:
- Justin Yatshuashi, Cole Breen and Mitch Breen, Business Operations, second
- Haley Izydorczak and Laura Gelsomni, Project Management, second
- Tadhg Keller, Ajae Olsen and Audrey Leonard, Project Management, second
- Sophia O’Connor-Colbert, Sarah Lehan-Allen and Makayla Hickey, Entrepreneurship, second
- Brooke Noonan, Integrated Marketing, second
- Jared Curran, Individual Series, second
- Emma Naggar and Abby Nixon, School Based Enterprise, second
Third-place winners:
- Jaclyn Anderson, Business Operations, third
- Maya Evans and Sammie Taylor, Entrepreneurship, third
- Emma Sheehan and Brooke Stagg, Entrepreneurship, third
Fourth-place winner:
- Courtney Keswick and Aly Wood, Business Operations, fourth
- Jackson Fletcher, Business Operations, fourth
- Ben Simmons and Caden Heslin, Entrepreneurship, fourth
- Carson Meier, Jackson Hom and Joe Burke, Entrepreneurship, fourth
Fifth-place winners:
- Declan Breen, Nico Calderone and Nico Canning, Business Operations, fifth
- Samantha Asprelli and Isabella Fraone, Project Management, fifth
- Josh Raimer, Entrepreneurship, fifth
- Kristina Conlon, Entrepreneurship, fifth
- Mitchell Pearson and Danny Dumais, Entrepreneurship, fifth
- Lainey Grant and Amelia Lerner, Integrated Marketing, fifth
In addition to these participants, Senior Jaclyn Anderson won the State Video Contest, Senior Audrey Leonard was named a DECA Emerging Leader and Senior Mitch Breen was awarded a MASS-DECA Scholarship.
During the conference, the School Store received gold recertification and the chapter was awarded the Gold level in Chapter of Excellence. The chapter was also recognized for achieving Thrive level in the DECA Inc. membership campaigns and achieving Radiate level in the state membership campaign.
“The hard work and dedication of our student members is what truly makes our chapter so special,” said Vice President Abrams. “I would like to congratulate our students for once again qualifying more written projects than any other DECA chapter in Massachusetts.”
This Virtual International Marketing Skills Conference is also taking place in April and will include DECA’s International competitive events program and Emerging Leader series academies for members.
###