Chippewa Secondary School News Release ********************** The results are in from the Developing Excellence Celebrating Achievement (DECA) Regional Business Competition held at Georgian College in Barrie last week.
The results are in from the Developing Excellence Celebrating Achievement (DECA) Regional Business Competition held at Georgian College in Barrie last week. All of the Chippewa Secondary & Intermediate School competitors will advance to the province wide competition held at the Toronto Sheraton Centre in February 2010. Winners from the provincial competition will head to the ICDC (International Career Development Conference) held in Louisville, Kentucky in April 2010.
Chippewa Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) Business students competed against 14 other high schools from the Durham, Simcoe and Limestone School Boards. Each competitor is required to complete a 100 question multiple-choice exam followed by an oral event in a specific subject area. In the oral event, students can work individually or in pairs and are given a case study to analyze, and then present their ideas to business judges in a role play within a specified time limit. Chippewa is the only school from Northern Ontario to participate at DECA and has been competing since 2007.
This year, seven Chippewa students stood out in the field of 400 students and made the top 5 qualifiers list to be eligible to compete in their category again at Provincials.
Jennifer Guillemette and Jessica Stickle, 2nd place medal, Buying and Merchandising Team Management Event
Ryan Ledoux, 3rd place medal, Individual Series Event, Apparel & Accessories Marketing
Kristi Pahapill and Jenny Stickle, 4th place, Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Management Event
Scott Bertrand and Phillip Carmichael, 5th place, Financial Services Team Management Event
Three other Chippewa students received ribbons and recognition for their individual top 10 results.
Sara Staley, 6th place, Restaurant Food Services
Landon Schubert, 7th place, Sports & Entertainment Marketing
Nathan Gravelle, 8th place, Business Services Marketing.
First time DECA competitors Matt Robinson, Samantha Steele, Brianne Baril, Julie Walpole, Sean Green and Kristina Martel will compete in a variety of other leadership presentations and special events at Provincials and will still be eligible to qualify for ICDC.
DECA was originally founded as the Distributive Education Clubs of America in 1946 and is recognized internationally. Its mission is “to be the leading, innovative extra-curricular program for secondary school students in Ontario by creating professional partnerships and experiential learning opportunities that allow students to develop confidence and demonstrate leadership in the business community.” Membership in DECA has been growing exponentially since 2005 and now has over 6000 high-school students in Canada and the U.S that are involved in DECA.
Chippewa business students participate in activities and competitions such as DECA as part of the Ministry of Education SHSM program. Students take two grade 11 and 12 senior business classes and have the opportunity to work in the school store, Joe’s Trading Post, named for the school mascot Joe Raider. They also gain valuable work experience through cooperative education placements in the community in their particular area of interest such as marketing, accounting or entrepreneurship. Upon graduation, students receive an OSSD Diploma with a Specialist High Skills Major designation in Business Studies. Chippewa SHSM Pathways are set up with business courses in a range of subject areas geared toward students entering college, university or the workplace.
