Kecoughtan DECA attends career development conference

Members of the Kecoughtan High School chapter of VA DECA joined 5200 high school business, finance, hospitality and marketing students at the annual association career development conference held February 28 to March 2, 2025, at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

Zakary Stewart received third place of individual ability and achievement at the association level in Hotel and Lodging Management Individual Series. He will advance to international level competition at the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) that will be held April 26 to 29, 2025, in Orlando, FL. This is Zak’s second trip to ICDC, this time as Kecoughtan’s chapter president and a graduating senior.

As an integral part of the classroom curriculum, DECA’s industry-validated competitive events are aligned with the National Curriculum Standards in the career clusters of marketing, business management and administration, finance, and hospitality and tourism. DECA’s competitive events directly contribute to every student being college and career-ready when they graduate from high school. More than 40 business professionals evaluated the members’ performance in the format of role-plays, case studies and prepared presentations.

“A DECA advisor is only as great as the future leaders they inspire—and my students make every challenge worth it!,” said Michele McDaniel, Kecoughtan High School lead DECA chapter advisor.

Congratulations to Zak and good luck in the international competition.

About DECA Inc.

DECA is a career and technical student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs with a career interest in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA enhances the preparation for college and careers by providing co-curricular programs that integrate into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business and promote competition. DECA student members leverage their DECA experience to become academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible, experienced leaders. DECA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with over 287,000 members in more than 4,000 high school and college chapters in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Germany.

For more information about DECA, visit www.deca.org.