Ocean City High School Students Profit from Entrepreneurship Contest

Six Ocean City High School students recently returned from a trip to Orlando, FL, where they participated in the DECA International Career Development Conference.

Seniors T.J. Heist and James Russ, juniors Lindsay Vetter, Amanda Jamison and Lauren Freas and sophomore Emily Johnson had to compete at regional and state levels to earn the trip to the international finals.

DECA, known as Distributive Education Clubs of America before making the acronym its  official name, encourages entrepreneurship among high school and college students. In its annual competition, DECA compared business projects completed by pairs of students.

Vetter and Jamison created a community service project involving Cape May County's Coalition Against Rape and Abuse (CARA). Heist and Russ sold interest in a school-based business, Super Bagels, that saw an increase from $2 to $28 per share. Freas and Johnson developed a program to promote financial literacy in the school community.

Each of the teams was first or second at the state level, and ultimately competed with 15,000 other students in Orlando.