Having secured a fifth-place finish at the DECA State Career Development Conference in the category of Principles of Business Management and Administration, junior Garrett Tenney has qualified to compete in the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC), April 26-29 in Orlando, Fla.
“I was not expecting to place at State,” Tenney said. “Just my main priority was that I want to improve how I touch on each performance indicator [set of standards for the competition].”

Tenney and DECA sponsor Mary Janssen will join more than 23,000 high school students, sponsors, business professionals and DECA alumni at the ICDC.
“I have been several times to Orlando for this conference, and it’s always a blast,” Janssen said. “It’s a cool and unique experience to be at an event with that many people, all excited and pumped up.”
DECA is an organization that prepares high school students for various careers in business. Students compete, have leadership opportunities and gain real-world experience in the field. And, unlike most competitors who qualify for the State competition, Tenney was required to compete because he is running for a DECA State Executive Officer position. These officers represent their fellow members at the state level and have a say in setting goals for the program statewide.
“He had to prepare a speech, campaign booth and do voting sessions at State,” Janssen said.
In his category, Principles of Business Management and Administration, he acted out a scenario in which he hosted a mock meeting with a client.
“I was a manager for a property building that a lot of different companies had a residency in,” he said. “I had to make a meeting with a ton of them. We were going to fix an elevator that was broken.”
For Nationals, the format of the competition will be similar to the State competition. Tenney will take an exam, compete live in a role-play in front of a judge and participate in an interview.
“Some of the things I am doing to prepare for nationals are looking at study guides on the DECA website, watching guides on YouTube and practicing at home,” he said.
Tenney’s accomplishment marks a milestone in Gretna East’s growing DECA program, as it is in its first year.
“I’m really proud of my personal growth and proud to be the first person at my school to get an award for DECA,” he said.