Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Cleary University announced that members of its DECA chapter have qualified for the International Career Development Conference in Louisville, Kentucky in April.

Cleary students who placed in the top six at the DECA State Career Development Conference, securing a spot at the April competition, include:

-Matt Radjewski (Macomb) and Bryce Owens (Burton): Entrepreneurship: Starting a Business
-Brooke Trouten (Monroe) and Jordan Huenemann (Mt. Pleasant): Digital Marketing Strategies
-Veda Kania (Brighton): Fashion Merchandising and Marketing

Cleary Associate Professor and DECA Co-Advisor Justine Defever said “We are so proud of the performance of all 11 of the Cleary DECA students who competed. This was a tough competition; it was the largest one for Michigan Collegiate DECA in more than 30 years. Our students were competing against 230 students from 13 Michigan chapters, and their presentations were all exceptional”.

Defever added “Dean Genei (Kelly Genei, dean of Undergraduate Studies at Cleary and DECA co-advisor) and I congratulate all 11 of our students for their dedication, diligence and determination. They fully embraced the spirit of the conference by participating in additional competitions, networking with students from across the state and modeling the Cleary Mind™ attributes in their real world scenarios.”

Cleary competed against DECA students from these universities: Central Michigan University, Delta College, Eastern Michigan University, Kettering University, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, Northern Michigan University, Northwood University, Oakland University, University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Western Michigan University.

Cleary students competed in a wide variety of categories: business research, digital marketing strategies, entrepreneurship – starting a business, entrepreneurship operations, fashion merchandising and marketing, and marketing management.

In addition to their performances, the Cleary DECA team had more wins to celebrate:
-Jacob Haley (Flint) was elected Secretary for Michigan Collegiate DECA’s Executive Board.
-Veda Kania and Aliya Ferrand (Fowlerville) won the community service competition.

“Year after year, our DECA team consistently exemplifies what it means to be burgeoning leaders in their respective industries,” announced Dean Genei.

Other students from Cleary who competed at the state conference are:
-Shaelyn Kao (Douliu, Yunlin, Taiwan) and Jacob Haley: Entrepreneurship – Starting a Business
-Chase Palmer (Macomb), Ryan Davis (Commerce Twp) and Carson Fulghum (Brighton): Business Research
-Aliya Ferrand: Entrepreneurship Operations

DECA officials expect more than 1,000 students from around the world will compete in the international competition in April.