Max Morgan, a Wadsworth High School senior and member of the Four Cities Compact’s Business Marketing Academy, has earned a spot at the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Atlanta, GA., this April. After advancing through regional districts and a state competition of over 2,000 peers.
Morgan will now compete against around 20,000 international students to showcase industry knowledge and professional communication skills.
“Qualifying for DECA’s International Career Development Conference (ICDC) is a significant accomplishment,” said Samantha Coldwell, the four cities compact business marketing academy teacher.
DECA is a nonprofit student organization that prepares high school and college students for business careers.
“Ohio is one of the largest DECA associations in the country, so competition is extremely strong. Only a small percentage of competitors earn the opportunity to advance to ICDC,” Coldwell said. “At the international conference, students compete against thousands of top students from across the United States and several other countries.”
Morgans DECA event is the Professional Selling event, which focuses on one of the most important skills in business: understanding a customer’s needs and presenting solutions that provide value.
“There’s tons of different events that you can take part in, and find one that you like,” Morgan said. “Personally, I like the professional selling event a lot and it’s also pretty easy for me. Everyone pretty much does roleplay and just takes a test though and you’re graded out of 100 between the average of your role play and test.”
For each of these sale pitches Morgan gets feedback from judges based on his approach which allows for him to think more on his feet.
“Of course, everyone hopes to place at the international level, but the experience itself is incredibly valuable,” Coldwell said. “Students are surrounded by thousands of other motivated young people who share an interest in business, marketing, entrepreneurship, and leadership.”
In order to get to the national level, Morgan had to compete at states and place top 5 people out of 12.
“When the 12 finalists were called up it was a big wave of nerves,” Morgan said.
However he made the cut to go to national competition by 7 people.
