Mound Westonka High School senior Mac Harmer and juniors Isaac Paul and Rocco Zahasky have qualified for the DECA International Career and Development Conference (ICDC) after finishing eighth in the nation in DECA’s Knowledge Matters Virtual Business Challenge in January. 

High school DECA members had the chance to participate in eight Virtual Business Tracks this year: VBC Entrepreneurship, VBC Fashion, VBC Accounting, DECA Hotel Challenge, VBC Personal Finance, VBC Restaurant, VBC Retailing and VBC Sports. Each track encourages DECA members to test their skills within its particular virtual business environment – individually or as a team of up to three members. MWHS seniors Logan Kevitt, Dylan Mather and Matthew Uhas qualified for DECA ICDC back in October after finishing sixth in the nation in the VBC Sports Challenge. 

Harmer, Paul and Zahasky competed as a team in the DECA Hotel Challenge presented by the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation. The challenge encouraged DECA members to test their skills at managing a simulated hotel. Participants scheduled banquets and meetings, set room rates, bid on group sales, booked advertising, monitored customer service, determined housekeeping needs, and more. Results were based on a balanced scorecard that included profitability, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

According to Harmer, finding dedicated teammates was crucial to their success in the challenge. “My favorite part of the hotel challenge was the fact that it didn’t feel like work, but rather playing a video game with friends,” he said. Harmer added that his team was surprised to find out that high hotel occupancy at a low price was more efficient than average occupancy at a “normal” room price.

The 2023 ICDC will be held April 22-25 in Orlando. Westonka DECA is sending 155 students to the Minnesota State Career Development Conference March 5-7 with the goal of advancing more competitors to ICDC.

About Westonka DECA

DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers 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. The Westonka DECA program is led by advisors Sue Simonson, Alex Wagner, Lizzie Williams and Nelson Krause.