On May 2, nineteen Liberty DECA members flew to Atlanta, Georgia, after qualifying to compete at the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC).

Eleven of those who were sent earned the title of International Finalist including: seniors Lilia Haberman, KD Kerstetter, Jessie Bisset, Rachel Phillips, Katie McGuire, and Aditya Seshadri, junior Connor Small, and sophomores Spencer Greenwald, Tyler Wray, Alex Wilsey, and Connor Applegate.

“I’ve never seen so much success. It is a wonderful thing. It has been a long eleven years but this year something amazing happened,” Gapinski said.

Following the international finalist awards, those who advanced competed in a second round of their selected events. At the grand awards ceremony Liberty had four of its very own students recognized on stage as grand winners, including Haberman (who won First Overall Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan), Wilsey, Small, and Seshadri.

While many of the finalists are graduating seniors the Liberty DECA Chapter has its sights set on improving in the future and sending even more students to Nationals in the years to come.

“We spent a lot of time preparing for this, months in advance in fact. The amount of work paid off, as we did very well,” Gapinski said.