The Bonney Lake High School DECA program has grown steadily in recent years, both in membership and success. The trend continued two weeks ago, when 26 students participated in the state conference and a dozen qualified for the upcoming International Career Development Conference.

“This is, by far, the most success we’ve ever had as a chapter,” faculty adviser Felicia Kern wrote in an email.

Headed to the international conference, along with their specialty, are: Lianne Jackson and Kiera Thorne, Student Based Enterprise; Tim Marble, Madilyn Jones and Della Rosenkranz, Thrive Academy; Ashley Bender, Professional Selling: Marketing Security Services; Devany McDowell, Principles of Business Finance; and Marie Brandstetter, Professional Selling: Hospitality and Tourism.

This year’s International Career Development Conference will be in Orlando, Florida. The state conference is in Bellevue each year, at the Hyatt Regency and Meydenbauer Center.

Kern notes that just two Bonney Lake High students qualified for the international conference in 2016. That jumped to four the following year and six in 2018.

Students heading to Florida are earning scholarships through working in the student store, have received help from the state DECA organization and from their network of industry partners, which includes PACCAR and Columbia Bank.

DECA is an international program that specializes in business, marketing, hospitality, finance and entrepreneurship. Students can compete in more than 40 events, most requiring a 100-question multiple choice test and a performance in front of an industry judge. There are more than 200,000 high school DECA students spread across eight countries.