Pictured above L - R: Evan Rodrigues, Matthew MacDougall, Adriana Botelho, Isabella Brando, Lauren Pattie, Madeleine St. Pierre, Gavin Reed, Preston Brodd, Jacob Betres, John Thompson, Anderson Charest, Logan Dubois, Lola Silva, Benjamin Peters, Co-Advisor Michael Almeida (not pictured, Co-Advisor Maureen Gauthier). Center with yellow badges Mary Jo Tavares and Cid Rodrigues, President and Treasurer of Bristol Rotary.The Mt. Hope High School DECA club once again finds itself in the enviable position of having thirteen (13) students qualify for international competition! To update you, this year we had a record setting 61 students compete at the RI DECA Career Development Conference, that is up from 41 last year and 26 the year before. We are extremely happy to say the DECA organization is growing by leaps and bounds! Of those that competed, 19 placed in the top three of their events, with 13 students earning an invitation to compete this April at the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Orlando, Florida with over 20,000 U.S. and international students. Of the 13 students who qualified, all will be representing Mt. Hope and RI DECA by competing in either a written paper / presentation event, or an individual / team role-play as well as take a national exam. This is an incredible achievement and the students have worked very hard to attain their goals.
Bristol Rotary donated $4,000 to assist with the students’ expenses in getting to the competition. DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America.