Pictured: Simran Mithrani, Alicia Fabella, Kamran Khan, Romesa Amiwala, Hassam Uddin, Manu Deva
Niles North DECA National Finalists and State Champions were honored at the May 4 Niles Township High School District 219 Board of Education Meeting.
DECA students Romesa Amiwala, Kamran Khan, and Hassam Uddin are ranked Top 10 in the World in this year’s International Career Development Conference (Nationals) as well as state champions for their Project Management Career Development Project in which they planned and hosted nine career development speaker panels. They are one of the Top 18 projects out of the approximately 200 qualifying projects competing at this level, in the world. Only two other schools in Illinois made it to this next level of competition with a written project which includes planning events for the past two years, writing a 20-page paper, and executing a professional presentation.
DECA sponsor Jean Attig said, “This is our first national finalist in recent memory! These students worked incredibly hard these past two years to create a Career Development project that I knew had the chance to make it to the national stage. They never gave up and even improved their project during remote learning and a worldwide pandemic. Sponsor Nick Pahl, Kara Mielke, and I are so proud of them and want to thank you for your support of our students! Fingers crossed that they bring home The DECA Glass! Have a great day!”
Also honored at the meeting were Illinois State Champions Alicia Fabella, Project Management Business Solutions, Manu Deva, Project Management Business Solutions, and Simran Mithani, Project Management Sales Project. Both of these projects included a culmination of two years worth of work to improve our student-run business, DECAdent Delight, but from different points of view. PMBS worked on improving the marketing strategies and PMSP worked on improving revenue streams. Even in the middle of a pandemic and remote learning, they were still able to raise money for the chapter by including all NNDECA members!
DECA is a career and technical student organization composed of more than 228,000 students who are interested in careers in marketing, entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality or 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. DECA student members leverage their DECA experience to become academically prepared, community-oriented, professionally responsible, experienced leaders. For more information about DECA, visit http://www.deca.org.