This semester 6 students from Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School had the opportunity to “Experience the Difference” while competing in Anaheim, California for the DECA International Competition at the International Career and Development Conference (ICDC). More than 23,000 high school students, teacher-advisors, business professionals and alumni gather for several days of DECA excitement. This year’s DECA theme was “Experience the Difference.”
Two Bishop Tonnos CSS students who attended Internationals, Clara Fava and Robert Meneguzzo, both walked the DECA stage at DECA Provincials last year but did not make it to Internationals then unfortunately. However, this year was DIFFERENT! This year they qualified and competed at Internationals. They attended with another team of students from Bishop Tonnos CSS; the team of Nicholas Katsaros, John Pucci and Matteo Volpini, who competed in DECA for the first time this year. The Team of Clara and Robert competed in a Career Development Project. The team of Nicholas, John and Matteo completed an Innovation Plan. Both teams performed exceptionally well at the International Competition, and each earned a DECA Award of Excellence.
Student Julia Bomben also attended ICDC as a participant in the Leadership Development Academy offered at the Conference. There she gained valuable information and experience to help the Bishop Tonnos Chapter for the new school year. Julia shared, “ICDC was an amazing experience and a great opportunity to network with people from all around the world.”
Students who compete internationally do not compete for their school but for their state/province. Our Bishop Tonnos CSS students were part of the Ontario DECA Affiliation of DECA Inc. Ontario DECA for the 2023 2024 year had 241 Chapters and 15,000 members. There were 562 competitors, 65 leadership delegates and 112 teacher advisors who made up the Ontario DECA team at ICDC this year.
We congratulate our Bishop Tonnos CSS students on all they accomplished. They dedicated months of work and many late evenings in perfecting their written reports and presentations. Not only did they experience the difference, but this experience has made a difference in their lives.
