Five Franklin High school students qualified for the DECA International Career Development  Conference in Atlanta this past weekend. Peter Markarian, Brandon Caron, Brian Barker, Devon Strok, and Varun Pulluru all placed in the top four in their respective category at the state competition at the Marriott Copley Square in Boston.

Despite the success in the state competition, only 28 students from Franklin competed in states compared to nearly 40 students last year. The down year has lead members of the organization, at the school, to try to encourage underclassmen to take marketing and join DECA.

Ms. O’Neill, head of the business department, and head of Franklin DECA, recently spoke about the benefits DECA provides for students.

“DECA has many different benefits. First of all, it gets students used to working with professionals in careers they might be interested in. It helps students develop their leadership skills, and improve their communication skills, and it helps them get a sense for the field of marketing, and all of the functions that can occur in that particular field,” Said O’Neill.

“It’s a lot of fun, the competitions are a lot of fun, a lot of networking, making friends with kids from all over the country, but ultimately what you are doing is learning more about yourself, more about the business fields, and learning more about, perhaps,  what your future is going to be career-wise,” she also added.

Any student interested in participating in DECA should see their guidance counselor about adding marketing to their schedule for next year because you have to take the class to be a part of DECA.