From March 8-19, eight students from Liberty qualified for the DECA International Career Development Conference. These students had to compete against nearly 1,600 other high school students in the Missouri DECA State Career Development Conference, where they had to participate in role plays or write essays in response to common workplace problems.

These videos were judged by more than 150 professionals who chose the six best videos to continue onto the international competition. The international conference will be held from April 23-27 in Atlanta, Georgia. The previous years’ conference was virtual but this year will be in-person.

Audrey Fleetwood, Leah Kaler, Madalyn Breckenridge, Arthi Konapani, Emma Mulherin and Sarah Dickson will be competing as individuals, and Mackenzie Kelling and Ben Meyer will be competing as a group. There will also be 14,000 other students from schools all across the United States competing.

Students will be “taking a test and competing in a role-play or writing a paper and then presenting it to a judge,” says Mrs. Taylor. At Liberty, DECA is sponsored by Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Muench. 

Audrey Fleetwood, a junior, will be competing in her second international competition.

“We started writing our papers in September,” Fleetwood said. “We spent three months on our presentations, so it’s been quite a process.” She hopes to participate in next year’s competition and is “really looking forward to it.”