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Twelve Onalaska marketing students competed at the Wisconsin DECA State Career Development Conference held March 11-13 at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wis.

The students qualified for the State Career Development Conference after placing in the upper ranks at the district competition back in January, and they’ve been preparing ever since.

The three-day competition is a rigorous event. Depending on the category, the students had to endure two tests, one an overall economics concepts and the other a specialized marketing strategy test, and impress a judge during two role-plays.

During these role-plays, students are scored on everything from their professional appearance to their overall confidence. Confidence is harder to control in the role-play competition because students are given 10 minutes to come up with creative solutions for the problems that were handed to them before the clock started.

The competition has many different events, ranging from food and restaurant management to fashion merchandising.

Jenny Faber, a senior and first-year competitor, won a medal in retail marketing for her exceptional scores on the economics test. Megan Bakkesteun, who attended the International Career Development Conference last year in Orlando, also medaled in the food marketing management event.

Two OHS juniors, Kyla Fredrickson and Mischa Subhani, worked as a team in the business law and ethics event, and their scores qualified them to attend the International DECA Career Development Conference held in Atlanta in April.

Others participating in the state DECA competition included Caleb Roberts, Holly Nelson, Megan Bakkesteun, Jeff Vandervennent, Ashley Puig, Rachel Spindler, Morgan Ludington and Matthew Buswell.