What better way to Get the Edge than representing your school amongst hundreds of students from all over New Jersey?

For the last two days of February and March 1st, 15 members of EHS”s DECA chapter gathered at Harrah’s in Atlantic City for the State Career Development Conference (SCDC). Students who participated qualified from the district-level competition back in January, and competed for a spot at the International Career Development Conference coming up later this month.

The first day of the competition got a late start. Expectations were low for a quick and easy check-in, but things went surprisingly smoothly. The remainder of the first day was spent exploring, checking out what Downtown DECA had to offer and completing tasks for the Selfie Challenge. The day ended off on a high note with an energetic introduction ceremony to get competitors pumped up for the next few days. Schools from all over New Jersey were in attendance, with hundreds of kids, teachers, and parents packed into one auditorium. More time was spent exploring following a brief chapter meeting with Mrs. Bieber to outline the plans for the rest of the conference.

With a curfew of 11:30, it was time to prep for the real deal. Tuesday morning came fast, and the conference rooms were even busier than the previous night. Hectic is the only word that can describe the pre-competition. There were monitors yelling out names, confused students trying to figure out where to go, and huge groups sitting and waiting to be called for their events. Many events were delayed and some didn’t get to go until 2 hours after they were scheduled to compete. Once they were called in, however, it was smooth sailing.

Groups of six were called into holding rooms, where they would wait a few minutes to be seated. Competitors were then given 10 minutes to prepare, and once that time was up it was time to face a judge to show off our skills. The rest of the day was laid-back, with more exploring and participating in the activities Downtown DECA had to offer. Congrats to Seb Jazwinski for winning the DECA trivia out of more than 50 people!

The third day had an early start, but was pretty easy-going. A final awards ceremony was held to wrap up the SCDC and announce the competitors who had advanced from their events. It was definitely a bittersweet ceremony, especially for the seniors who had been members of their school’s DECA chapters and this was their final competition.

Major congratulations to seniors Ryan Grompone and Olivia Piserchia, and juniors Melanie Delarosa and Eleeza Kapadia for advancing in their respective events to earn a spot in the ICDC in Orlando!