2020 District 4 Career Development Conference

This past Sunday and Monday, members of Coon Rapids DECA competed at the MN District 4 Career Development Conference in Plymouth.  Among the 48 DECA members that attended, there were 34 students that qualified for state in at least one event!  Some of the highlights at the conference included 47 overall finalists and 16 first, second, and third place finishers for Coon Rapids High School. 

Congratulations to Josie Ingvaldson, Uhlric Wymer, Sara Abbas, and Brynn Nguyen who each took home first place finishes.  A big congratulation goes out to Jesus Genis, Emily Holloway, and Rylee Turner who qualified for state in all three of their events.  A special recognition goes to Eli, Guthrie, Sara Abbas, Megan Schultze, Kenneth Batiste, Brynn Nguyen, Rylee Turner, and Marshall Milless who all earned a top twenty-five exam scores at the conference.

These students will be competing in March at the DECA Minnesota State Career Development conference, for the right to represent Minnesota DECA at the International Career Development Conference this April in Nashville, TN. 

Junior DECA member Josie Ingvaldson was also elected to represent District 4 DECA as a state Officer for the 2020-21 school year.  Congratulations Josie!  Lastly, Coon Rapids DECA also won the prestigious DECA Cup. This is the first time Coon Rapids has won the cup since the 2009-2010 school year.  The DECA Cup will be on display in the Cardinal Image.

All the DECA members who attended should be applauded for their excellent showing.  Lastly, Mr. Bodenburg, Mrs. Roo, and Mrs. Munce would like to thank all the DECA members who attended the District 4 competition for their respectful and professional behavior at the conference; you truly represented yourselves with class and dignity. Thank you and congratulations!

MN State Career Development Conference

Front Row: Zach Goldenstein, Uyen Nguyen, Jordanna Bradford, Sydney Holloway, Brynn Nguyen, Sofia Esteves Pereira, Sydney Holloway, Rylee Turner, Sara Abbas, Wilfred Sato Jr.

Middle Row:  Mr. Blake Bodenburg, Marshall Milless, Marty Jennings, Blake Erickson, Omar Osman, Jaron LeSarge, Alex Levitskiy, Kenneth Batiste, Uhlric Wymer, Dominic Lego, Matthew Padiken

Top Row:  Hayley Nelson, Megan Schultze, Emma Kwaidah, Eli Guthrie, Alessandro Marigliano, Victor Pham, Jesus Genis, Kevin Genis, Megan Cosman, Josie Ingvaldson

On March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the DECA State Career Development Conference in Minneapolis, Coon Rapids DECA had a wonderful showing. Some of the highlights of the State DECA Conference included an 8th place finish for the team of Uyen Nguyen, Eli Guthrie, and Dominic Lego in the Career Development Project. A 7th place finish for Rylee Turner and Sara Abbas in General Lines Sales Demonstration and Financial Consulting respectively. Wilfred Sato Jr. and Megan Cosman earned 6th place in Hospitality and Tourism and Sales Demonstration General Lines respectively. The Coon Rapids team of Megan Cosman, Rylee Turner, and Brynn Nguyen also qualified in the School-Based-Enterprise Project by recertifying the Cardinal Image as a gold level enterprise. The pair of Brynn Nguyen and Megan Cosman brought home a 4th place finish in Marketing and Management. Junior Megan Schultze also earned 4th place finish with her Independent Business Plan. The team of Josie Ingvaldson and Megan Schultze earned a very impressive 2nd place finish for the Minnesota DECA Gold Chapter Campaigns. Lastly, Senior Brynn Nguyen earned 1st place, state champion, in Professional Selling. Overall, Coon Rapids had 21 state finalists in their individual or team events.

Amidst the 2,200 competitors at the state conference Eli Guthrie, Sara Abbas, Marshall Milless, and Matthew Padiken stood out by earning the top 25 test scores on their individual comprehensive exams. In addition to all the top finishes, the Coon Rapids chapter was acknowledged with the distinction of earning the highest Achievement Level on all four national DECA chapter campaigns. The campaigns include the Membership Campaign, the Global Entrepreneurship Campaign, the Promotional Campaign, and the Community Service Campaign.

Other highlights of the conference were when Megan Cosman and Brynn Nguyen were named Coon Rapids High School’s Outstanding DECA Members of the Year. Brynn Nguyen, Megan Cosman, Rylee Turner, Josie Ingvaldson, Megan Schultze and Jesus Genis earned the Minnesota DECA Speaker’s Bureau Awards, for their work this year in speaking in promotion of business and marketing education to their larger community. Along with all the student successes, advisor Blake Bodenburg was honored to be named as one of eleven Minnesota Secondary DECA Outstanding Advisors at the conference.

In addition to all the top finishes, recognitions, and awards Brynn Nguyen, Megan Cosman, Rylee Turner, Megan Schultze, Josie Ingvaldson, Wilfred Sato Jr., Emily Holloway, Uyen Nguyen, Jordanna Bradford, and Sydney Holloway all qualified to attend this spring’s International Career Development Competition in Nashville, TN.  At this conference Coon Rapids will be competing with 20,000 other marketing competitors from around the world in an extremely competitive international field. Last but not least, Advisor Mr. Bodenburg, and DECA chaperones Mrs. Munce, and Mrs. Roo would like to say thank-you to all the DECA members that competed in the state conference; you represented Coon Rapids and yourselves with dignity and class. Congratulations to all!

International Conference Attendees, Nashville, TN

Brynn Nguyen:                        Professional Selling

Megan Cosman:                      School-Based-Enterprise, Food Operations

Rylee Turner:                          School-Based-Enterprise, Food Operations

Megan Schultze:                      Independent Business Plan

Josie Ingvaldson:                     State Officer, Empower

Wilfred Sato Jr.:                      Principles of Hospitality and Tourism

Emily Holloway:                      Gold Chapter Campaign, Elevate Academy

Uyen Nguyen:                          Gold Chapter Campaign, Elevate Academy

Jordanna Bradford:                 Chapter Community Service/Promotional/Global Entrepreneurship/and Membership Campaigns, Thrive Academy

Sydney Holloway:                    Chapter Community Service/Promotional/Global Entrepreneurship/and Membership Campaigns, Thrive Academy

2020 ICDC was cancelled due to a global pandemic