Five Maverick finalists of the state DECA competition traveled to Orlando, Florida, for the annual International Career Development Conference (ICDC) April 25-28.

The following juniors advanced to Internationals: Anna Qi, Ricardo Rivadeneira, Natalia Colom, Joanne Nguyen and Megan Lutz.

“My partner, Anna, and I took practice tests, looked over our event and past case studies for our event, and memorized lots of different key marketing concepts,” Rivadeneira said. “Finding out we were advancing at state was a really crazy experience. I had been hoping we would advance; and when it actually happened it was sort of unbelievable in a way.”

The first day in Orlando began with the opening ceremony for DECA students from all over the world. Everyone received different items that represented their state/region. Texas members got a cowboy hat and Texas shirt along with pins to put on their lanyards.

“We all got to meet a lot of people, both from Texas and other places. I have a DECA pin from China as a result of trading with one of the students competing from China,” Rivadeneira said. The second day was testing and afterwards consisted of a career fair with companies giving out free merchandise and letting people try out their products. That night, everyone in DECA went to Disney World. The entire park was closed and reserved particularly for DECA.

The third day was the actual day of the competition. Just like the test, everyone had a specific time for their event. Once it was over, everyone went to Universal Studios.

On the last day, the finalists were announced. Depending on whether a contestant made it as a finalist, they proceeded to compete in the final rounds through which the top 10 winners were determined and announced at the Grand Ceremony.

“It was a great experience,” Rivadeneira said. “Somewhat tiring and having to make up work after coming back wasn’t the best, but it was totally worth it.”