Three students from the Gateway Marketing and Management Association/ Delta Epsilon Chi captured first-place honors–and several others took second- and third-place honors–at the 51st Wisconsin Collegiate DECA annual Spring Competitive Events Conference held March 1 to March 4 in Madison.
The strong showing results in 23 Gateway students qualifying for the national DECA competition of marketing and business education to be held April 28 to May 1 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Nicole Rugen (Delavan) and Sarah Akey (Whitewater) captured first place in the advertising campaign category while Andrew Barnhill (Kenosha) took first in Web site design.
Several Gateway students also took second-place honors, including:
• Harold Coots (Kenosha) and Alex Nelson (Darien) in international marketing;
• Nicole Pagan (Kenosha) in fashion marketing and management;
• John Kaprelian (Racine) and Nick Mercier (Kenosha) in sports and entertainment marketing;
• Mike Poletti (Kenosha) in professional selling;
• Lillana Moncada (Racine) in human resource management.
Third-place finishers for Gateway include:
• Mike O’Connor (Kenosha) in fashion marketing and management;
• Tim Lasco (Bristol) in professional selling;
• Andrea Haisler (Lake Geneva) in entrepreneurship;
• Coots in student of the year.
Gateway student Andrea Haisler (Lake Geneva) was also elected a state officer.
More than 220 students from business programs throughout the Wisconsin Technical College System and the University of Wisconsin System attended the conference. Students competed in 20 marketing, management and accounting events judged by business professionals from across the state.
Gateway students finishing in the top three all qualified for the international competition. Several others placed well enough to qualify for the Salt Lake City event, too: Alex Calder (Kenosha), Elijah Gonzalez (Kenosha), Connie Mason (Kenosha), Aaron Cole (Kenosha), Jeanne Gomez (Racine), Michele Czarnecki (Union Grove), Sharon Wilkins (Kansasville), John Sura (Racine), Nicole Weaver (Kenosha) and Fernando Yebra (Waterford).