Five Hanover County Public Schools (HCPS) students have earned top honors at the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC), triumphing over students from around the world in their respective categories.
Elle Hogg, a senior at Atlee High School (AHS), placed first in Apparel and Accessories Marketing, while AHS junior Cameron Mottley placed first in Community Awareness Project. Also from AHS, senior Ben Glass placed third in Sports and Entertainment Marketing. Representing Patrick Henry High School (PHHS), seniors Shelby Baucom and Cassidy Jackson placed second in the Lead4Change Challenge.
This year’s ICDC brought more than 20,000 high school students, advisors, business professionals, and alumni to Atlanta for the four-day tournament, during which DECA members demonstrated their college and career ready knowledge and skills by participating in DECA’s competitions in the areas of marketing, finance, hospitality, management, and entrepreneurship.
“It is difficult to encapsulate in words what happened this year at our international competition in Atlanta. To put it into perspective, there were 17,500 students at the competition. Six teams in the state of Virginia placed top three in their events, and Atlee High School made up three of those six, being the only school in the state to receive first place,” said Stephen Hogan, who has served as Atlee’s DECA Advisor since 2016, his first year of teaching. “We were overjoyed when our three champions - Elle Hogg, Cameron Mottley, and Ben Glass - were called up to stage at the Grand Awards ceremony. We were shocked, ecstatic, and felt an overwhelming sense of pride as our chapter members were called up to the podium to receive the coveted ‘DECA Glass’ that represents the pinnacle of success in DECA competition.”
Hogan added that Atlee is one of only seven schools in the world this year to have multiple world champions.
Sarah Preston, the DECA Advisor from Patrick Henry High School, said the Patriot students are genuine, hardworking, and motivated, and that contributed to the success.
“To have Patrick Henry High School be represented on the international stage at this conference made me so proud. Not only did I have the trust, support, and confidence from administration to pursue this opportunity, but the support from my PHamily, the parents, and community shouldn’t go unrecognized,” said Preston, who is in her first year teaching in Hanover County. “We can only hope that we made everyone proud by having our students achieve such an amazing accomplishment. We can only hope that this motivates more students to join next year and continue the legacy.”
The students and advisers were recognized at the May 10 School Board meeting for their great accomplishments.