On March 6 through March 8 you might have noticed that a considerable number of your classmates were missing from class. During this time, 89 students from Great Neck North were competing at DECA states.

DECA is an international business club that competes through written events and role-play events. The club competes on three levels. “The first competition is the Nassau County Regional Competition which is held in December. Students who are successful at the Regionals can advance to the next competition which is the New York State Career Conference held in Rochester, NY. Winners at DECA States then advance to the International Career Development Conference, which for 2019 is held in Orlando, Florida,” Richard Marchese, an advisor of DECA for 13 years, said.

Starting as a relatively small club in the high school, which only qualified one member to States, DECA has made serious progress since then. “We always think how are we gonna meet last year’s success,” Paul Rodriguez, another advisor of DECA for almost 11 years, said.

This year DECA had one of its greatest turnouts of Internationals qualifiers. “We ultimately had 45 people advancing to Orlando, we brought 89, so over 50 percent of our members made it,” said Liraz Pirouzian, a senior and officer of the club, “So we were the number one chapter at New York state.” Pirouzian has been an active participant of the club for all 4 years of high school.

These achievements have really been made by the students in the club itself. “This year the officer team that we had, our senior, juniors, and our sophomores really took ownership of the club and really worked hard with a lot of ambitious underclassmen,” said Rodriguez, “Freshmen and sophomores came out in number this year and they’ve instilled just a strong work ethic.”

But Marchese and Rodriguez both agree that the officer team this year really made the difference. “They spend countless hours teaching, prepping, doing practice role plays, practice tests, assisting with papers, and creating visual aids. Mr. Rodriguez and I cannot give enough credit to our officers for personal sacrifices and their leadership,” Marchese said.

Not only do the individuals make the club great but so does their unanimity. “Overall our chapter was the most unified it ever has been in the award ceremony. You had so many kids standing and yelling for each other and every time you heard Great Neck North come up we had our banner,” Pirouzian said.