Six Kettering University students took top honors at Collegiate DECA's (Delta Epsilon Chi) State Career Development Conference in Battle Creek on Feb. 11-13. They now qualify for the international competition in April in Florida.
Kettering's chapter went head-to-head against students from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Michigan Tech, Valparaiso University, Northwood, Davenport (Grand Rapids), Delta College and Grand Rapids Community College during the weekend contests.
Kettering students captured eight awards this year: one first place, four second place and three honorable mentions. At the conference, students took exams, solved case study problems, wrote business plans and role-played with industry judges.
Of the six Kettering students who competed this year, five were new to the competition and had never competed before at Collegiate DECA. The honors qualified the students to attend the International Collegiate DECA Career Development Conference in Orlando, April 13 - 17.
First Place
Tyler Finnegan, senior in Mechanical Engineering, in Fashion Marketing Management
Second Place
Aditya Badarinath, senior in Mechanical Engineering, in International Marketing
Aditya Badarinath, senior in Mechanical Engineering, in Culinary Management
Tyler Finnegan, senior in Mechanical Engineering, in Marketing Management
Alex Masters, sophomore in Business, in Financial Services
Honorable Mentions (4th - 6th places)
Aditya Badarinath, senior in Mechanical Engineering, in Financial Services
Kaity Just, sophomore in Business, and Michael Colando, sophomore in Mechanical Engineering, in Business-to-Business Marketing
Alex Masters and Michael Woznicki, sophomores in Business, in Entrepreneurship
Collegiate DECA is a student oriented organization focused on developing future business leaders. The four cornerstones of DEX are career awareness, civic consciousness, social intelligence, and leadership development with competitive events in: Business, Design, Entrepreneurship, Finance & Accounting, Food Service & Culinary, Hospitality & Travel, Information Technology, Management, and Marketing & Sales. Besides the yearly State and International Career Development Conferences in the spring, Collegiate DECA also sponsors a yearly Leadership Conference in the fall.
Kettering students raise funds by selling snacks in the Business Department lobby. This money helps to offset the registration fees and travel money needed to attend the conferences.
To find out more about the chapter, contact Professor Cayo (kcayo@kettering.edu) To read more on DECA, visit: http://www.deca.org/membership/college/