Cherry Hill East’s DECA chapter sent 40 students to the DECA International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia from April 25-29, where two teams took home second place in their event.

The ICDC conference brings together over 26,000 students, advisors and business professionals internationally, featuring competitions across various business disciplines and hosting workshops on career development. Students at ICDC advanced from the regional level in Cherry Hill to the state conference in Atlantic City and finally to Atlanta, Georgia, surpassing thousands of students in the process. The teams of Cary Bloom (‘26), Jake Forstadt (‘26) and Alexis Nowakowski (‘26) in the Financial Literacy Project and Aneesh Rajagopal (‘27), Ben Sautter (‘26) and Tracy Vuong (‘26) in the Financial Operations Research both brought home DECA glass taking second place. Claire Li (‘28) placed top 10 in the Food Marketing Series, and the team of Ellie Finer (‘27), Madison Greenwald (‘27) and Rachel Rosenberg (‘26) placed top 20 in Buying and Merchandising Operations Research. 

The Financial Literacy Project challenges students to develop a project to promote financial literacy in their local communities. Bloom, Forstadt and Nowakowski placed second internationally for their project, “Smart Savings,” a “cash” course in financial literacy for local fifth-through ninth-grade students in the surrounding Cherry Hill community. Smart Savings was founded in 2024 and has only grown since.

“We made a curriculum and presented it on google slides, but also integrated into the lessons two learning based games that we played with students. We had games in between [lessons] to stick in their heads and make kids excited,” said Nowakowski.

The team not only planned six events at various schools and community centers, but condensed two years of work into a paper and presentation at the ICDC level.

“[We’ve] poured countless hours in ensuring each and every word and graphic is perfect, so I can say that [we] put all [our] effort into this and I saw the results at states when [we] qualified for the national conference. I can clearly say there’s no luck involved for a paper event. You have to put in so much work and so much dedication,” said Bloom.

Upon reflecting on their win, the team feels empowered not only by the DECA glass, but also on the change they made in their local community.

“Two words I feel right now are fulfillment and reward. [I feel] fulfillment in the fact that we grew it from the ground up with no expectations. We started it because we wanted kids to be more financially literate. [It’s] rewarding to not only see our [DECA] awards, but also seeing community recognition with a letter from the superintendent.”

The Financial Operations Research event prompts students to partner and research with a financial institution to develop a strategic plan. This year’s prompt tasked participants to develop a Corporate Social Responsibility strategy for the company, utilizing research and customer feedback to target areas such as ethical sourcing or environmental initiatives. 

The team of Rajagopal, Sautter and Vuong started early in the summer, agreeing to partner with TD Bank for their project. However, what they found proved to be a more unique angle than other Financial Operations Research papers. 

“We began looking at TD websites and started becoming overwhelmed because TD bank already did so well with CSR. The angle we took was, ‘Well, TD Bank does such a good job– TD should just do a better job at marketing it. Not only can they appear as a more ethical company, but it can improve customer retention, customer growth and revenue,’” said Sautter. 

The group used the acronym GREEN, which stands for Grow marketing channels, Reestablish transparency, Elicit company unity, Encourage involvement, and Nurture sustainability, to encourage involvement for customers and employees at TD Bank. 

“From September to December, we did a lot of primary research. We created a customer survey who used TD bank and then we also did interviews with TD employees at multiple levels of TD,” said Rajagopal. “We also did an interview with a competitor at Fulton Bank… made a brochure to show our research and prototypes of mock credit cards… and created a case study on the computer to show how our plan would affect an employee. After states, we consulted with last year’s winner which gave us a lot of good tips.”

The team wanted to give a shoutout to multiple points of contact that helped them with their project, including Mrs. Jaclyn Pitt, who connected them to a retired TD executive, and Susan Rothman, a copywriter at the corporate level of TD.

“It feels unbelievable to win. It’s almost surreal. It’s just true confirmation that the late nights and the early mornings [in] Mr. DeWolf’s advanced market marketing class paid off. I’m just so grateful for my group and I’m happy that we executed and did well at the highest level,” said Sautter.

The Food Marketing Series is a roleplay competition testing students on marketing and management in food industries and retail. Students are given a prompt and have 10 minutes to prepare a 10-minute presentation to a judge. Additionally, they are tested on the Marketing Cluster Exam, a 100-question multiple-choice test on various marketing topics. Li finaled and placed top 10 in the event.

“First of all, I have to thank Ms. Shine and Mr. Dewolf and the chaperones for a great trip. But also, personally as a competitor, I feel like I’m very grateful for the support I received and congratulations I received [from our team],” said Li. “I was definitely personally pushing myself after last year’s event because I was entering a new category with new concepts and I’m very proud of how I did.” 

Similarly to the Financial operations research event, the Buying and Merchandising Operations Research event pushes students to develop a CSR strategy for a merchandising company. The team of Finer, Greenwald and Rosenberg partnered with HerSport, a specialized women’s athletics store in Cherry Hill.

“For a BMOR with Ellie Finer and Rachel Rosenberg, we started working on our operations research paper in the beginning of September and it took lots of work. We emailed the owner of HerSport and we

pushed out surveys for customers. We held a focus group for tons of research and we really put tons of effort in — going to each other’s houses every weekend in January and February to practice the script,” said Greenwald. 

The team finaled at ICDC, placing top 20 for their category. 

“I think a big thing about DECA is that you get out what you put into it. The more effort that you put in the better results [you’re] gonna get,” said Rosenberg. “[For] me and my team, we spent multiple hours every weekend outside of school… but I think the big idea is you really have to work hard for it.”

Finer reflects on the lessons that both the event and DECA has taught her. 

“DECA has been a huge part of my entire high school career, going from not putting in as much effort freshman year to now finaling at ICDC… I realized that [there] were really important skills [in DECA]. Even though I don’t even wanna go into the business industry, I put in a lot of hard work — hours perfecting my presentation, studying for the test and all of that —  in order to be successful,” said Finer. 

After students tested, presented, and competed, the chapter was able to make lasting memories in Atlanta. Inside the convention center, students traded fun pins that represented their states with one another as a way to meet new people. Outside of the convention center, students could explore downtown Atlanta, visiting many attractions such as the world-famous Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola Museum. However, students reflected that the most meaningful experience was the ability to network with other schools from around the world at the Mercedes-Benz stadium, forming lasting connections for the future. 

“The most I’ve taken away from ICDC is just meeting new people. Approaching people from all states in the United States, meeting people from Canada, even Hawaii — it’s just crazy to see and talk to people [to] see how they’re living in their states and compare our lives and make new friends from all over the world. I think it’s just really cool and pretty eye-opening and I would recommend connecting with people on LinkedIn,” said Justin Forstadt (‘26). 

As the students returned back to Cherry Hill on Wednesday, some with DECA glass and others with handfuls of colorful pins from different states, the memories made from this year’s DECA season remain unforgettable.