Greensboro, NC – Members of the Clayton High School chapter of North Carolina DECA joined over 6,000 high school business, finance, hospitality and marketing students at the annual association career development conference held February 26-28, 2026 at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC.
The following students received recognition of individual ability and achievement at the association level:
Mauricio Romero Cortes and Leo Trabocco- 8th place- Sport and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making
Laila Badger- High Roleplay Score- Marketing Communication Series
Nampratai Poonsastra- High Roleplay Score- Principles of Business Management and Administration
Clayton High DECA member, Jarron Jordan, was elected as the Coastal Region Vice President of the North Carolina DECA Executive Officer Team.
Competition finalists will advance to international level competition at the DECA International Career Development Conference that will be held April 25-28, 2026, in Atlanta, GA. Clayton High School DECA boasts a strong membership of 114 students. Advisors are Susan Perdue and Rocio Cullins.
As an integral part of the classroom curriculum, DECA’s industry-validated competitive events are aligned with the National Curriculum Standards in the career clusters of marketing, business management and administration, finance, and hospitality and tourism. DECA’s competitive events directly contribute to every student being college and career-ready when they graduate from high school. More than 400 professionals evaluated the members’ performance in the format of role-plays, case studies and prepared presentations.
“We are incredibly proud of our students, and it’s exciting to see their hard work and dedication lead to this achievement.” said Susan Perdue, advisor.
About DECA Inc. DECA is a career and technical student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs with a career interest in marketing, f inance, hospitality, and 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. DECA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with over 300,000 members in more than 4,000 high school and college chapters in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Germany. For more information about DECA, visit www.deca.org.