Northwood Students Lead the Way at Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference

Northwood University students led in leadership at the Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference, April 11-14, 2018, in Washington D.C. The international competition included more than 1,600 college students from the United States, Canada and around the world.Northwood University’s team was presented the prestigious Leadership Passport Executive Award for engaging DECA students to be active leaders and members in the DECA organization. Nine Northwood students received the Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award, which recognizes outstanding leadership.

Notably, Northwood student Allison Brown was elected Collegiate DECA International Vice President. Brown’s 10-month campaign was endorsed by her fellow students who supported marketing, campaigning, and staffing her campaign booth at the conference. Brown is entering Northwood’s DeVos Graduate School of Management to pursue her MBA in fall 2018.

Additional accolades include:

• Joseph Walsh: 1^st Place 2018 Global Idea Challenge; Top 5 Entrepreneurship Challenge; Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award
• Troy Cini: 1^st Place 2018 Global Idea Challenge
• Tristan Korzelius: 1^st Place 2018 Global Idea Challenge
• Allison Brown: 3^rd Place Entrepreneurship – Starting a Business;  Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award
• Jacob Walters: 3^rd Place Business to Business Marketing
• Richard Ascherl: 3^rd Place Business to Business Marketing
• Lance Johnson: Top 5 Sales Challenge; Top 10 Marketing Management; Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award
• Amanda Schmidt: Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award
• Annelise Norton: Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award
• Matthew Vaillancourt: Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award (recognizes outstanding leadership)
• Michael Shaddock: Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award (recognizes outstanding leadership); Chapter Leadership Award
• De’ Andre Kemp-Jordan: Michigan Collegiate DECA Voting Delegate; Chapter Leadership Award; Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award
• Damian Mansfield: Michigan Collegiate DECA Voting Delegate; Leadership Passport Blue Diamond Award

In addition, Northwood’s collegiate DECA advisor and professor John Gustincic was awarded the Certificate of Achievement for outstanding and lasting contribution as a presenter at the Advisor Professional Development forum.

DECA Inc. is a student organization with more than 215,000 members in all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Canada, China, Germany, Guam, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Spain. It is a professional organization cultivating emerging leaders and entrepreneurs.