A total of 12 from WCCC’s marketing program participated in the DECA State Career Development Conference held last week in Hershey.

The road to Hershey started last November at the district event where there are 59 different events. DECA is a nonprofit organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges.

“For the state level, they take a 100-point exam ahead of time based on their cluster,” Dominic Giannini, DECA advisor at the WCCC said.

At the competition, he explained that the students are confronted with two separate role plays as well as written events with a presentation.

Seven students that participated last week brought home a total of 15 medals. That included, from left, Bree Huntington, Nicholas Hamler, Marissa Gourley, Addyson Hannold, Sarah Tome, Samuel Smith and Kendra Chase.

One student, he said, participated in job interviewing — submitting a resume, an application and going through mock interviews in “front of experts in the field.”

Three students took home all three possible medals — high marketing cluster exam, high roleplay A and high roleplay B — Sarah Tome in Apparel and Accessories Marketing, Samuel Smith in Marketing Communications and Nicholas Hamler in Retail Merchandising.

Addyson Hannold won high marketing cluster exam in Sports and Entertainment Marketing — Team Decision Making while Hannold and Marissa Gourley combined to win high roleplay in the same category.

Bree Huntington won a medal for high written score in Integrated Marketing Campaign — Event; Kendra Chase won a medal for high roleplay A in Entrepreneurship Series Event and Paige Dexter took home the medal for High Entrepreneurship Cluster Exam in a team decision making category.

Giannini said that there were 2,600 students from across the state that participated in the event last week.

“To take home 15 medals, I think, is pretty good,” he said. “I think we did really well.”

None of the students advanced to an international competition but Giannini said a couple are “really close.”

But the true value of the program is more than just the medals that the students brought home.

Those industry experts, who also participate in the roleplays, present an unparalleled opportunity to the students.

“It’s an excellent chance,” he said. “It’s one to sit in a classroom … and that’s excellent. The opportunity to go into a scenario and sell your ideas and sell yourself to someone who is an expert in the field who has years and years of background is something that is invaluable, I think, to them moving forward.”