Three Whitefish High School students

placed during the 2011 DECA Western Region Leadership Conference

earlier this month.

Nathan Boone, Natalie Gayner and

Mackenzie Thomas all earned awards during the conference in San

Diego, Calif. Twenty-eight students from the high school’s DECA

group attended the conference which is designed to develop

leadership skills in students who are pursuing careers in marketing

and management.

DECA is a national career and technical

student organization for students enrolled in marketing, finance,

hospitality and management related courses.

Students had the opportunity to test

their marketing skills in a role play competition. They were given

a business scenario and 10 minutes to come up with a solution to

the business problem. Students were graded on how well they

addressed their performance indicators and also on the judge’s

overall impression of their presentation. They were then ranked

according to their overall score.

Three WHS students earned awards for

being in the top three of their competitions. Nathan Boone was

awarded first place in Principles of Business and Natalie Gayner

and Mackenzie Thomas were awarded third place in Hospitality and

Tourism. They were directly competing against over 1,500 students

who attended the conference.

DECA goals were stressed in more than

60 workshops and activities available to the attendees in San

Diego. A special learning activity at this conference included the

DECA University. This allowed students to participate in focused

leadership sessions that will allow them to receive specialized

training in areas such as: Finance and Investing, Marketing,

Hospitality, Sports Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and

Technology.