While students were in school at HHS, looking out of classroom windows hoping for the ever-lasting rainy, cold weather to cease, a small number of their peers were missing — in Atlanta, Georgia, on what some would call a “business trip.”

DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) is an organization throughout high schools and colleges worldwide that prepares students for careers in the business world, such as:  marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. The high school division includes 190,000 students from 3,500 different schools.

“That’s what’s great about DECA, it really prepares you for the real world because you learn communication skills, how to be a better speaker, a better listener, and how to think more effectively. That skill-set will really help you for any career that you go into, not just business,” said Simran Mishra, junior.

Over 100 HHS students joined DECA at the beginning of the year. Mishra, Kristina Myankova, Brit Stein, Katherine Swenson, juniors, and Eli Badower and Ryland Dorshow, seniors, were the only six HHS students that were selected to compete at nationals.

The DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) is a national high school business oriented event where students involved in DECA clubs across the U.S., with the exception of Canada, Spain, Guam, Puerto Rico and China, compete against each other with the hope to advance to finals.

“We really wanted to get into finals and of course we wanted to do well in DECA, but at the end of the day, we knew if that didn’t happen we made it so far and we were grateful for what was there. We just wanted to go [to nationals], meet some great people and have fun,” Mishra said.

Accompanied throughout the school year by Mr. Jesse Theirl, business department and HHS DECA advisor, the students were shocked to find out their dedicated advisor wouldn’t attend the journey with them to nationals in Atlanta. But, the reasoning behind his decision was more than acceptable to his students.

Theirl and his wife had welcomed their first child into the world; a new journey much larger than nationals.

“We were really happy for him, he had a baby and it was really great for him but we really wanted him to be there, we all love him and hes the person who guided us through regionals and state.” Mishra said. “We really wanted him to be there in that moment, but we understand that he had priorities.”