LM’s Distribution Educative Clubs of America (DECA) chapter attended the PA State Career Development Conference from February 19 to 21, with several competitors making the finals and qualifying for the national competition, the International Career Development Conference (ICDC).
President Emily Liberatoscioli ’25 and Vice President Sami Rafide ’25 placed in the Marketing Management Team Decision Making event, with Liberatoscioli winning Best test in the Chapter Awards. Noa Litcofsky ’25 placed in the Retail Merchandising Series event, as well as winning the award for second best roleplay in the Chapter Awards. Brody Slensky ’25 and Desmond McQuillan ’25 were state finalists in Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making. Carter Weisberg ’27 and Max Pasqualino ’27 were state finalists in the Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making event; the pair also received the award for best roleplay in the Chapter Awards. As of now, exact placements are not available as DECA has not released them to the public yet.
LM’s chapter brought 26 competitors to Hershey, Pennsylvania, after qualifying during the District 11 competition, with other schools from Montgomery and Bucks County participating, such as Baldwin, Harriton, Shipley, Upper Merion, and more. They donned blazers and suits, preparing to excel in their roleplays. Over three thousand competitors were present at the competition, yet LM was among one of the smaller chapters attending the event. This did not stop the team from their immense success. When asked how she prepared for her nationals-qualifying roleplay, Liberatoscioli explained, “You get what you prepare for. A lot of DECA is about confidence, smiling, shaking hands, and the rest is having a bit of business knowledge to carry you through it.” Her partner Rafide had similar sentiments; she elaborated, “We had a plan. We first read the roleplay, then established the performance indicators, came up with ideas…With the judges, you have to be confident.”
The club’s success came after a bumpy start to the 2024–25 season, after DECA was left without an advisor when Academic Seminar Teacher Andrea Johnson stepped down from the position. Finding teachers to sponsor a club can be challenging, as it is often unpaid, and going on trips costs the teachers money out of pocket. Despite these challenges, social studies teacher Mark Levy volunteered to fill the position. When Levy was asked about his role in the club, he said, “I’m really just the administrator, the students really run what they do in it… The students have a lot of passion, put a lot of work in, and have been a great group.”
Liberatoscioli and Rafide led the team to success, building the club up from scratch. Describing one major highlight of the season, Rafide stated, “When we held our first meeting, we were not expecting that many people, and it was crazy to see how much we’ve accomplished in a little amount of time. The meeting was so full that people didn’t have seats. It was also nice to see so many freshmen and sophomores being involved.”
Despite DECA being an international organization with hundreds of thousands of members, many students at LM are not familiar with it. The club has seen immense growth this season, doubling in membership, and has potential for more in the future. Rafide described DECA as “a group that is passionate not only about business but getting out of your comfort zone.” Levy added, “Shout out to Emily who did a lot of heavy lifting this year… Next year I’ve got more of a group of students who can help run it.”
LM is going to ICDC in Orlando in April, where they will compete against students around the world. The chapter’s impressive achievements at the district and state level, as well as the successful leadership this year, prove their determination to win this spring.
