LAHS students preparing to attend the closing ceremonies for ICDC. Pictured are (back, left to right) Alianna DeHerrera, August Ovaska, Lance Metcalf, Roccl Del Mauro, Presley Haight, Jayden Burns, Jasmine Heft and (front) Michael Velasquez-Saiz and Luke Creel. Courtesy photo
LAPS News:
Nine Los Alamos High School (LAHS) students attended the 2026 International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Atlanta, Georgia from April 25 – 28.
Seniors Luke Creel, August Ovaska, Jasmine Heft, Rocco Del Mauro, and Lance Metcalf, along with juniors Presley Haight and Michael Velasquez-Saiz, and sophomores Jayden Burns and Alianna DeHerrera joined 25,000 high school students from 25 countries at the conference. The seniors and juniors from LAHS competed in their chosen categories for a chance to win the worldwide top three positions and bring home DECA glass.
The two LAHS sophomores attended Leadership training workshops to further develop their leadership and management skills.
“Attending the DECA International Career Development Conference is an amazing opportunity for our students to meet and interact with industry experts and colleagues from across the world,” LAHS DECA Advisor, Dr. Sharon Hurley said. “The connections and experiences from these conferences can last a lifetime.”
“In the competitive role plays, students are presented with real business scenarios, and must generate solutions to the problems, and then present those ideas to judges who are industry experts,” Dr. Hurley explained. ”These experiences prepare students for solving workplace challenges and for responding appropriately in interviews and presentations. The leadership academies are especially useful in building skills that our students take back to the classroom and into the workplace,” she added.
Dr. Hurley continued, “The travel experience itself also provides valuable life skills to our students. Learning how to navigate airports, public transportation in large cities, and finding our way to various destinations also gave our students unique understandings of culture and a way of life outside our local communities.”
The DECA ICDC conference typically rotates between Atlanta, Anaheim, California, and Orlando, Florida. The 2027 DECA ICDC conference will be held in Anaheim. Students qualify to attend the conference by first competing in two one-hundred question tests in regional or district competitions, then advancing to their state competitions where they will complete another 100-question test and participate in role plays, mimicking real business scenarios.
New Mexico DECA is permitted to take the top four performers in each category to the international competition. At that competition, students then answer another 100-question written test and participate in additional role plays.
LAHS DECA students will begin preparing for their competitions when school resumes in August. The DECA program will be introduced to students in the business classes the first week of school, and students will select their chosen area on which to focus in late August. The first competition is early December, which determines which students advance to the State Competition.
DECA is an international organization dedicated to providing opportunities for students to participate in leadership training and career pathways conferences in the fields of marketing, finance, business management, and hospitality and tourism. Additionally, DECA provides students with experience in interviewing and networking with other students from around the globe who have similar career interests. DECA also offers merit-based scholarships for participating students.