By LAZARO GONZALEZ
FIU Hospitality students won first and second place, and ranked top ten among different categories at DECA’s International Career Development Conference on April 16–19 in Washington D.C.
The two-freshmen and two-junior team secured their ticket to the national conference when they excelled at the state competition held a month earlier, by winning individual and team challenges, beating thousands of students from 275 colleges and universities from across the U.S.
They landed at the capital full of confidence, but unable to see the finish line clearly. After all, they were about to go head to head against what could be thousands of the most successful and committed scholars from around the world—including Canada, The UK, Asia and the Caribbean, to name a few—who had achieved similar feats to qualify for the nationals.
The summer Olympic games would not happen for another few months, but to these students it may have felt just as if they had landed in the middle of a relay race. But instead of their muscles, they would use their brains.
Split in teams of three or four, they took on different real-world challenges with a clear mandate: solve the problem; arrive at the best possible outcome and win.
The two juniors scored big. Kimberly Rivera, who transferred to FIU from Broward College, swept the Red Lobster YPCN Leadership Seminar Case Study Challenge. Her team placed in first place. After the team victory, she was selected as the leader solo competitor to go against leaders from the other teams. She won that, too. Among other challenges, she presented on a new business concept and figured out how to solve problems within the DECA organization itself.
In the Human Resource Management challenge, 10 students were chosen as winners. James Unsell, the other junior, was one of them.
“Having great professors that actually were willing to give me their individual attention and time allowed me to feel confident in who I am. That is the greatest factor to my success at the competition, confidence,” he said. “This was not my first time participating in the DECA competition, however it was my first time representing FIU and making it to the top ten.”
Against all odds the two freshmen, who are Carnival Gold Scholar, did extremely well. Heissel Mayorga, who is already working in the hotel industry, excelled in the travel and tourism category, and John Simpson’s team placed second in the leadership challenge.
“It was an incredible experience,” said Heissel. “I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to go to DC and represent FIU at a DECA event. It’s also an incredible networking opportunity. You meet a lot of people from all over.”
Heissel already has her sight set for next year’s competition. “Hopefully, we can make it to California a year from now,” she said.
“They are all winners,” said Nico Rose, FIU hospitality advisor and DECA state coordinator who traveled with the students to the conference.
Most likely, the biggest win for these students is seeing the results from their arduous preparation. “There’s nothing like standing on a stage in front of a couple thousand people to receive an award. I am forever thankful for FIU and its wonderful faculty and staff for helping me achieve such heights so quickly,” said James.
