Vernon DECA teams make finals

VERNON — Vernon Township High School’s DECA teams returned from the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida recently.

Vernon had competitors in four competitive events receive prestigious Finalist Medals for outstanding performances in preliminary rounds, as well as the two groups who were called on stage in the Grand Awards Ceremony to be further DECA-rated with Top Ten medals.

Brianna Ryan (senior) and Jared Ryder (junior) advanced to the finals in Business Law & Ethics Team Decision Making. The group also was awarded Instructional Area medallions for their excellent performance in a Case Study in Economics. With her performance, Ryan became the first Vernon DECA member to advance to the finals in multiple ICDC appearances. Connor Quinn (junior) advanced to the finals in the Marketing Management Series.

The first Vernon group in the Top Ten consisted of three seniors: Patryk Opilka, Justin Metz and Xavier Castro in the Stock Market Game. This event started in October when the three men were given $100,000 in virtual money and given the task of growing their wealth by investing in a simulated stock market. For this competition, they prepared a manual explaining their portfolio’s performance and explaining strategies for diversification.

The second group in the Top Ten was a trio of Juniors: Jake Scrudato, Melissa Boniface, and Connor Fitzsimmons in International Business Plan. The group’s project dealt with a strategy for bringing GrubHub, a mobile application used in ordering food from restaurants, to Tokyo, Japan.