NDSCS Business Management students qualified for the 2024 International DECA competition

group DECA photo
02-28-2024

North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) is proud to announce that thirty-six NDSCS Collegiate DECA members competed at the 2024 North Dakota Collegiate DECA Conference on February 21st and 22nd.

This annual competition brings together some of North Dakota's best and brightest business students from eight different colleges to compete in various business case study events.

Students were entered into one individual event and were also paired up in a team competition. In both experiences, the students were presented with a real-world business problem and then asked to solve the scenario in front of judges. Area Fargo/Moorhead business professionals served as judges for this event. 

NDSCS Collegiate DECA had 28 members qualify to compete at the 2024 International Career Development Conference in Austin, Texas in April.

Top award winners in individual events include:

  • Emma Hagemeister (1st Place) Sales Management and Leadership Event
  • Wyatt Rittenhouse (2nd Place) Retail Management
  • Natalia Nazario (2nd Place) Entrepreneurship Operations
  • Madison Hagan (3rd Place) Travel and Tourism 
  • Adnan Rahman (3rd Place) Entrepreneurship Operations
  • Triton Kaercher (3rd Place) Financial Accounting
  • Lucas Allen (3rd Place) Hotel and Lodging
  • Moriah Blazek (3rd Place) Human Resource Management

Top Team Event Winners Include:

  • Kylie Geray and Emma Hagemeister (2nd Place) Business-to-Business Marketing
  • Ava Bladow and Corissa Lang (2nd Place) Business Ethics
  • Myah Jelinek, Natalia Nazario (2nd Place) Entertainment Marketing
  • Lauren Oster and Savannah Puetz (2nd Place) Event Planning
  • Moriah Blazek and Taylor Slominski (2nd Place) Marketing Communications
  • Lucas Allen and Mathias Kackman (3rd Place) Marketing Communications

Gregory Anderson, the faculty advisor for NDSCS Collegiate DECA, commented “I was pleasantly surprised at how well our students performed. As is usually the case, almost all NDSCS Collegiate DECA members are first-year students who have never competed before, going against seasoned juniors and seniors from four-year colleges who have experienced both state and national competitions. For our students to do well, they had to display a certain level of confidence, and I think that is what showed. I will be very proud to see a number of qualifiers take the next step at the International Conference in Austin, Texas.”