From April 24th to May 1st, Irvington High School’s DECA chapter travelled to Orlando, Florida to compete in the 2025 DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC), one of the largest and most prestigious high school business conferences in the world. Over 23,000 high school students, advisors, and partners connect throughout the conference, which officially takes place from April 24th to April 30th.
Our chapter stayed at the Hilton Orlando, only 20 minutes away from the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) where students would participate in competitive events. Irvington students were monitored on Life360 to ensure their safety as they explored the city of Orlando. On Friday April 25th, Irvington dedicated the entire day to visit at Disney World, with access to a variety of destinations including Magic Kingdom Park, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. “It was really fun, but it was also kind of scary. I think I learned a lot and met a lot of new people, especially when we visited the theme parks,” Hanaa Azad (9) reflects on her first year at ICDC. “I met a lot of people that placed 1st or 2nd in their events. I felt kind of intimidated, but I also thought it was cool to meet new people from other states and even countries,”
Irvington spent the following afternoon at Universal Orlando visiting both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure. However, our chapter returned to the hotel before evening in time for the Grand Opening Session. As an annual tradition to promote networking, students engage in pin-trading in the hours before the Grand Opening Session. This year, California DECA’s state chapter pin was designed after the In-N-Out Burger logo.
From Sunday, April 27th, to Monday, April 28th, students participated in competitive event preliminaries, including competitive event testing. Based on their performances during the preliminary round, students would receive awards as one of the top 20 competitors in their event internationally. During the Achievement Awards Session, four Irvington students were called to the stage: Pranay Chordia (11), Michelle Nguyen (11), Svanik Singh (11), and Ridhi Kadam (12). Of these four, Singh (11) and Kadam (12) advanced as finalists to the next round of competitive events. In the evening, students returned to the OCCC to cheer their classmates on during the Grand Awards Session, where DECA Glass was awarded to the top 3 competitors in each event. Kadam (12) was called to the podium where she was awarded 3rd place in Professional Selling. “I was more surprised to finalize than I was to place in the top 3,” Kadam (12) says, “I think my event especially is more impromptu, so it’s important for me to tailor my presentation to fit my judge as best as possible because sales is all about people skills. My advice to new or interested DECA members is to choose an event that will best suit your strengths,”
After the Grand Awards Session, Irvington joined the California DECA chapter for the California DECA Dinner, which celebrated the achievements of all Californian ICDC competitors. “Our competitive success this year was expected when considering the obstacles kids face. Kids were more concerned about the existence and status of DECA as an Irvington chapter as opposed to competitive success,” Senior Ballado, one of the three DECA advisors, added. Overall, the 2025 DECA ICDC was a great success for the Irvington DECA chapter, which will be recognizing the achievements of our members at the upcoming DECA Banquet on Saturday, May 24th.
