These Kansas Wesleyan DECA members have bragging rights after winning world championships

Charles Rankin, Salina Journal

Kansas Wesleyan University's DECA team includes the best in the world, as more than half of its members brought home world championships last month.

In addition to six team members winning world titles, KWU said every competitor from the school earned top 10 results during the Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference in Austin, Texas, from April 20-23, when they competed against more than 100 colleges and universities from junior colleges to Division 1.

Guthrie Burch and Kyla Ohlson claimed the world championship in Event Planning, Oriana Botz and Abigail Palme in Marketing Communications and Courtney Beers and Heidi Jones in Business Research.

The Kansas Wesleyan University DECA team pose in Austin, Texas during the Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference. More than half of the team members took home world championships from the event.
The Kansas Wesleyan University DECA team pose in Austin, Texas during the Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference. More than half of the team members took home world championships from the event.

“KWU DECA continues to get better each year,” said DECA coach Trish Petak. “The team continues to not only impress me, but also Collegiate DECA members and coaches at the conference, as we are one of the most recognizable teams there.”

For one team member, the conference in Austin will close out her DECA career as the most-decorated competitor at KWU. Burch finishes her time at KWU with three top three international results and four top three state finishes.

Burch, who is graduating this coming weekend with a degree in marketing communications, is also the only KWU competitor to have podium finishes in two events at the international meet this year. She said DECA has made an impact on her life in important ways.

“DECA taught me so much about who I am and my abilities and gave me so much confidence to speak up,” Burch said.

Following is a full list of the KWU DECA team results from the international competition:

  • Individual events

    • Top 10, Tru Haesemeyer: Restaurant and Food Service Management.

  • Team events

    • First Place, Guthrie Burch and Kyla Ohlson: Event Planning.

    • First Place, Oriana Botz and Abigail Palmer: Marketing Communications.

    • Third Place, Courtney Auld and Caleigh Evans: Entertainment Marketing.

    • Top 10, Clay Gagnon and Isaac Stanton: Business-to-Business Marketing.

    • Top 10, Courtney Beers and Heidi Jones: International Marketing.

  • Prepared events

    • First Place, Courtney Beers and Heidi Jones: Business Research.

    • Third Place, Guthrie Burch and Tru Haesemeyer: Advertising Campaign.

To learn more about Collegiate DECA, visit www.deca.org/collegiate. To learn more about Kansas Wesleyan University, visit www.kwu.edu/news.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Kansas Wesleyan DECA team brings home international championships

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