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I am anchor
Mountain Ridge senior starts year as DECA State Officer
Posted
By Paula Bondeson
Special to Independent Newsmedia
Catherine Horton, Mountain Ridge senior, was elected as a DECA State Officer for the 2019-20 academic year. She will lead both the school and community through community service projects and her knowledge of business, marketing and hospitality.
Horton was inspired to become a DECA State Officer when she heard last year’s State Officers speak at the Career Development Conference. She shared that from the moment she got involved in DECA. Her favorite part of DECA is meeting all of the people involved in the club.
“I am completely overwhelmed in the best way possible,” Catherine said. “My campaign was Horton has Heart, and my heart was all in it and my heart is just so happy that I was able to secure this position.”
Catherine will have plenty of opportunities to impact the school positively this year.
“My biggest goal to accomplish is to connect our corporate partners of Arizona DECA and our chapters,” she said.
She plans to have organizations like the Marriott, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns come talk to this year’s DECA chapter about topics like hospitality and sports marketing. Her goal is to get them more involved so students can get exposed to all they have to offer.
Catherine is excited to see what the coming year brings for DECA. She is ready to do whatever she can to make DECA a great organization to be a part of. Her position as a DECA State Officer will give her the ability to really improve DECA as a whole.
To qualify for the position of DECA State Officer, candidates must carry at least a 3.0 G.P.A., complete an application, and take place in the interview process. According to Catherine, the application wasn’t too difficult but the interview was “very rigorous.”
“It is both an interview and a test,” she explained. “We interviewed with our board of directors of Arizona DECA, then with the past state officers about what we want to do for DECA and what we have to offer, and the test was just history of DECA.
“It was super nerve racking. You walk into a room packed with adults and they just start rapid fire with questions and you just have to hope you have the right answers for them.”
Editor’s note: Paula Bondeson writes for The Ridge Review, the Student News Site of Mountain Ridge High School.