Southeast has been successful again with bringing home three first-place finishes from the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) collegiate state conference and competition in Missouri.

"I loved seeing some of my DECA students prove to themselves that they could compete at a national level, and seeing others gain more confidence knowing they could return next year for state competition," business instructor Nancy LeGrand said.

Southeast brought home first place in Sports and Entertainment Marketing case competition, Event Planning case competition and Accounting case competition. Students on the team also brought home two third-place finishes in the Restaurant and Food case competition and Marketing Communications case competitions.

In writing proficiency, Southeast had seven winners. They were recognized for superior performance in their case studies and marketing exams.

LeGrand said Southeast's DECA team has been fairly successful throughout the years. Their success at state has allowed them to compete at National Collegiate DECA, which will be held in Arlington, Va., in April.

Senior Hannah Gordon was recognized as a proficiency winner for the Restaurant and Food Service case competition.

"I've been working in restaurants for about five years, so it worked out really well for me," Gordon said. "I also did event planning and I'm a hospitality major, so I've taken event-planning classes and it went really well."

Due to budget cuts, efforts to get the team to state was last minute.

"We had to do a lot of work and put it together ourselves. As a group we took on the responsibility to get the competitors information and get the finances in line," Gordon said. "Which as students is something we don't usually do; I think this was actually one of the more fun parts. It was good to see us all take more of a leadership role and work together as a team to get us to state."

Now that the state competition is over, the team is focusing on to the National Collegiate DECA competition in April.

"The team hopes to do just as well [at nationals] as they did at state," Gordon said