Middletown High Students Win BIG at State Competition

Middletown High School students won an astonishing 29 top prizes in the 2010 DECA State Competition on March 9th. They were competing with about a thousand other students from throughout the state, in events such as Marketing, Finance, Business Law, and Entrepeneurship.

Michael Awdziewicz leads Middletown's D.E.C.A. (Distributive Education Club of America), which includes courses in retailing and marketing, and offers college credit to students who meet the grade requirements. Dave Reynolds also teaches in the program.

Awdziewicz told me that this is by far the largest number of Middletown DECA winners (the previous best was 17 winners, last year), and may be the largest number of winners from any school in the history of the program. Eighteen of the winners are now eligible to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, a four-day competition which draws about 20,000 students from around the world.

Awdziewicz said that with so many Middletown students winning, he is even more excited about this year's international competition, which will be his 30th.

Here are the Middletown winners (CONGRATULATIONS!):

1st Place

• Stefano Raffa and Kacper Szarek (Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making)
• Dan McAlear (Principles of Marketing)
• Brian Barbour (Hotel and Lodging Management Series)

2nd Place

• Michele Lau and Garret Rice-Earl (Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making)
  
• Mark Adamiak (Restaurant and Food Service Management Series)
• Jeff Baran and Lauren Linares (Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making)
• Joseph DiMauro (Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series)

3rd Place

• Brianna Bomely (Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series)
• Vanessa Young and Lenya Donaldson (Business Law and Ethic Team Decision Making)
• Kaitlyn Pearce (Principles of Hospitality and Tourism)
• Jocelyn Lau (Principles of Marketing)
• Emily Hatfield and Paul Reddell Jr. (Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making)
• Joey Czaja (Business Services Marketing Series)

Top 6 Medalists

• Ashley Wooten
• Luigi Raffa
• Jon Aldieri
• Luka Augieri
• Amber Wolfgram
• Brittany Cotharin
• Tricia D’Onofrio
• Marisa Rodo
• Laura Turnage
• Ameilia Teape
• Tyler McDonald