Sixteen DECA students move on to States

Danielle Denman

GHS DECA students pose before heading to the competition

JESSE ALEXANDER, Staff Writer, Editor

Sixteen students from Gloucester High School placed at the DECA District competition held at Endicott College on Thursday.  These students will move on to the state competition which will be on March 7-9.

There were two first place winners, Dakota Girard (Personal Financial Literacy), and Max Boucher (Sports & Entertainment).

Senior Ruby Melvin who placed 3rd in Hospitality Sales is excited to move on, “I think that everyone did a really good job,” she said.  “Even though not everyone moved on we definitely represented Gloucester well. It’s super exciting that we have as many as sixteen people going to states.”

There were nine other schools excluding GHS who competed in Districts this year, Rockport, Beverly, Manchester Essex, Marblehead, Swampscott, Triton Regional, Boston Latin, Boston English, and Northeast Metro.

DECA advisor, Ann Grassetti is proud of her freshmen competitors, “I brought 36 students this year and 12 of them were freshmen,” she said. “Normally I don’t bring freshmen but since I only had one marketing class this year I recruited them. Two of them qualified for the state competition which was very exciting.”

“We had an awesome day and students worked hard and were extremely professional representing Gloucester.”

Here are the results:

Carolyn Cinelli Buying & Merchandising 3rd
Maria Karol Buying & Merchandising 3rd
Luke Pata Entrepreneurship Decision making 4th
Brandon Smith Entrepreneurship Decision making 4th
Delaney Benchoff Financial Consulting 2nd
Colby Mitchell Financial Operations research 4th
Marc Smith Financial Operations research 4th
Ruby Melvin Hospitality Sales 3rd
Sedona Gillard Innovation plan 2nd
Kyle Watts Innovation plan 2nd
Leilani Brown Integrated marketing campaign 3rd
Dakota Girard Personal Financial Literacy 1st
Lauren Wood Personal Financial Literacy 4th
Eliana Faria Principles of Management 4th
Daniel Beaton Professional Selling 4th
Max Boucher Sports & Entertainment 1st