Twenty students from Prior Lake participated last month in the annual Minnesota Distributive Education Clubs of American (DECA) State Career Development Conference held in Minneapolis.

During the school year, over 6,000 Minnesota DECA members take part in the organization’s competitive events program, allowing them to compete in over 70 events focused in the areas of entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality, marketing and other related fields. The competitions are designed to simulate real-life business scenarios and test students’ academic understanding and skills development. After qualifying earlier this year, district winners put their talents to the test during the conference.

Three Prior Lake students receiving state recognition include:

Madelynn Banas, Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making, 5th place and Business Growth Plan, 2nd place;
Joshua Pascanik, Business Finance Series, 1st place; and
Olivia Zirbel, Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making, 5th place and Business Growth Plan, 2nd place

Banas, Pascanik and Zirbel will travel to Orlando this month to compete with more than 22,000 top students from around the world at the International Career Development Conference.

DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. DECA enhances the preparation for college and careers by providing co-curricular programs that integrate into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business and promote competition.