A group of students is preparing for a trip to Atlanta, Georgia.

The Adair – Casey / Guthrie Center Distributed Education Clubs of America (DECA) group performed well at the State Career Development Conference, advancing two contests to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). Junior Preston Kent and Senior Irelyn Wirt will be taking part in Team Decision Making, Entrepreneurship. Kent shares what he’s looking forward to on the trip.

“Definitely just spending time in Atlanta with the group and just hanging around and going to do fun things.”

Seniors Angel Martinez and Max Trujillo-Garcia will be in Team Decision Making, Business Law and Ethics. Martinez tells Raccoon Valley Radio what he would tell individuals who are thinking about joining DECA.

“Try it out. I mean, it really won’t hurt to try it out. There are so many events that you can do. At first I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I think the first event I did was like a Principle of Entrepreneurship event. And it really was not too hard. My role play was fairly easy and I was very proud of how I did after we got our test scores back. So just give it a shot.”

The 2026 ICDC will take place from April 25-28 in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Georgia World Congress Center. Sponsor Jen Betterton mentions that this is different from national events groups like FFA and others would attend, as it is an international competition with students from countries like Vietnam, Russia and China participating as well.