By Michelle Donaghey Correspondent
BREMEN — Look out world, here they come!
The Bremen High School chapter of Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) fared well at the DECA State Career Development Conference in Indianapolis last weekend, with five students qualifying for the International Career Development Conference to be held in Orlando, Fla. April 27 to May 2.
The students were overjoyed.
“I never envisioned that I would experience as much success as I did throughout this program,” said Kristen Malone, one of five Bremen students to advance to internationals. “I hope to take advantage of this opportunity!”
Malone and her partner, Brian Main, qualified in Buying and Merchandising, winning first out of 50 teams. Mitch Huber finished second in Sports and Entertainment Marketing, earning a competency award for scoring above 85 on his concept test and/or role play. The duo of Genaro Marquez and Sean Kelty finished third in Financial Analysis.
“I didn’t think we would make it, because only the top three at state go on to the international conference and we were second at district!” Kelty said. “I figured the first place teams from other districts would fill the top three spots.”

While DECA Adviser Amber Reed knew they had it in them, she was surprised at the high number who qualified.
“I am so happy for this group of students! After district, I knew that we had the capability to move on to nationals, but I never imagined that five of them would be in. This is such a great experience for them,”
She said the students will now attempt to raise $5,000 to make the trip possible.
“First on the list is to find the money,” she said, hoping sponsors will come forward.
DECA students can’t wait to move on and up in the competition in something that they enjoy doing.    
“DECA is nothing like anything else at Bremen. It’s a competition that involves more than just tests and answering questions. You’re allowed to be creative and spend a lot of time with your friends,” said senior Mitch Huber.
“DECA is definitely a lot of fun,” agreed senior Brian Main. “It’s a great chance to show knowledge, not only book knowledge, but practical knowledge. It lets you show what you can do in a real-world situation outside of  school setting.”
While it is fun, it is also challenging.
“The hardest thing had to be the role plays,” said senior Genaro Marquez. “The judges could not give much feedback so I really didn’t have any strong feelings how we did. I really wanted to get to the next level, but I wasn’t really sure if it was possible with such great competition.”
Main said, “The hardest aspect was knowing terminology related to our category. It definitely is hard to know everything that could be covered there!”
The students are gearing up for the trip to Orlando. Goals have already been set by the students.
“I’m just going to study and try to polish my delivery at the next level,” Marquez said.
“Kristen and I are both going to study a lot more,” Main said. “We never thought that we would make it this far because other Decans [DECA students] have more chances to study in classes and meetings.”
Reed said that she will also help them as much as she can as the DECA adviser.
“The team really came together and I am very proud of them,” Reed said. “This is such a great thing for these students and for our school. I am so proud of them.”
She knows the success of this year’s DECA students will help inspire more students to ask for a marketing class next year.
“I think that next year it will be different. Students, DECA and non-members are signing up for the class! DECA is a great opportunity and having a marketing class will only allow more of our students to be successful,” Reed said.
In addition to the five Bremen students who will advance to Orlando, another duo — Brad Harrington and Rodney Smith — did well, too. They received competency medallions and on-stage recognition for making it into the final round of competition and finishing in the top 10 in their category, E-Commerce.
Also at the conference, Kelty, a junior, was elected as the vice president of District 2 in DECA.