Cherokee County DECA Students Sweep State Honors, Head to International Competition

Dozens of Cherokee County students traded classrooms for conference rooms this spring, and came home with state titles. Competitors from Creekview, River Ridge and Sequoyah high schools claimed top finishes across a wide range of business, marketing, entrepreneurship and hospitality categories at the Georgia DECA State Career Development Conference, earning the right to represent their schools on an international stage.

DECA is a nationally recognized career and technical student organization that prepares high school and college students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Competition is no casual affair: students complete written projects, deliver role-play scenarios and present to panels of working business professionals, the kind of pressure-tested preparation that college admissions offices and employers notice. For Cherokee County families investing in their students' futures, DECA is one of the more direct pipelines from a high school classroom to a professional career.

Creekview High School led the county with one of its deepest performances in recent memory. Huntyr Mugge, Isabel Mulkey and Mignon Retief claimed first place in Financial Literacy Project, while Jake Cohrs and Max Hamlin took third in Franchise Business Plan. Josh DeLima, Camilla Martinez and Jackson Rogers Purser finished fourth in Community Giving Project. Emma Pollard and Jaxson Pollard placed fifth in Independent Business Plan, and Kai Baty placed fifth in Financial Consulting. Amelia Babcock, Kinsley Carlson and Lauren Hamm rounded out the top six in Sales Project. Additional top-eight finishes went to Hadley Duncan, Kate Martin and Noah Morris in Start Up Business Plan; Finley Howard and Avery Tryan in Integrated Marketing Campaign, Product; and Zac Blevins, Liam Collins and Ryan Sullivan in Sports and Entertainment.

Creekview also placed multiple teams in the Top 15 and Top 20, including Lindsey Stine in Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling, Luciano Perez, Harper Singleton and Ana Stone in Independent Business Plan, and Eben Mann in Professional Selling, among others. At the chapter level, Creekview was recognized as a Top 25 Chapter in Georgia and earned Thrive Level Membership for excellence in Community Service and Promotional Activities. The chapter also received the Inspire Award, which recognizes creative member engagement, alumni involvement, collaboration with other chapters and innovative strategies to improve competition performance. Chapter advisor is Ashley Jones.

At River Ridge High School, Connor Morrison and Peter Marshall earned second place in Hospitality Services, and Mia Stiefel and Tyler Stacey placed fifth in Sports and Entertainment Marketing. Monica Ramirez was selected to perform the National Anthem at the state conference, a distinction that sets her apart among thousands of student competitors statewide and speaks to the breadth of what DECA recognizes in its members. The River Ridge chapter earned the Chapter Campaign Award, and chapter officers Juliean Ngo and Rylee Hall are participating in the Officer Leadership Program. Chapter advisor is Krista Duke.

Sequoyah High School matched its counterparts with a performance that stretched across some of the competition's most demanding categories. Alana Blase claimed first place in Quick Service Restaurant Management, and Sebastian Murillo took second in Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling. Eleni Giannopoulos finished in the Top 5 in Professional Selling, and Beatriz Roca-Garcia reached the Top 5 in Sports and Entertainment Marketing. Ian Lightcap placed in the Top 10 in Business Services, with Anne Haymond, Bailey McGuffey and Charles Miller doing the same in Financial Literacy, and Sebastian Hornsby and Evan Jones in Innovation Plan. Sequoyah's full roster of Top 15 and Top 20 finishers spans categories from Automotive and Career Development to Retail Merchandising and Hotel and Lodging Management, one of the broadest competitive footprints among the three schools. The chapter earned Thrive Level recognition in both the DECA Chapter Campaign and DECA Membership Campaign. Chapter advisor is Chana Miller.

All three schools now advance to the International Career Development Conference, which draws tens of thousands of DECA members from across the United States and around the world each year. Reaching that stage requires finishing among the best in Georgia, itself a large and competitive state field, making these results a genuine measure of what Cherokee County students can do when given the tools and the challenge. The students heading to internationals have spent months building business plans, sharpening presentations and learning to think on their feet. That work doesn't stop when the conference ends.