Dartmouth High School students showed off their business acumen at the DECA State Career Development Conference last week as several won recognition in a competition that saw 3,400 high school students from across Massachusetts take part.

37 students from Dartmouth attended the three-day competition on February 27-29 to compete in areas of business management, marketing, hospitality, and finance.

Colin Zhu placed first overall in Restaurant Management, qualifying for the international competition in Nashville, Tennessee at the end of April. 

Zhu also received recognition for placing first in a role play challenge and placing second in the written marketing test.

In an event focused on hotel and lodging management, Ines Farias placed seventh overall and second in the role play challenge. Sophia Waite placed ninth overall in the same category.

Riley Haynes and Orly Gonsalves placed seventh overall in a Hospitality Services team event, while Adam Noseworthy and Alex Mathes placed eighth overall in the Financial Services team event.

Emilia Costa, Ines Farias, and Reese Leconte placed first in the state in the virtual Business Hotel and Lodging Management online challenge, receiving a plaque onstage for their win.

Two Dartmouth students are eligible to attend a leadership workshop at the international conference to develop their leadership skills in preparation for leading next school year’s Dartmouth High DECA chapter.

“We had a great state competition. The kids worked really hard,” noted faculty advisor Patricia Kane. “They were really professional throughout the conference.”

Kane stated that Dartmouth will be sending three students to the international competition this year, including Colin Zhu and two others who will be selected for the leadership workshop.

She added that this year was the biggest-ever DECA competition, and possibly the largest competition for high school students in the state.

“Given the amount of competition, I’d say they did excellent,” she noted.