Several business students from the University of Rhode Island are preparing to compete at the Collegiate Distributive Education Clubs of America’s International Career Development Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, which will take place between April 18 and 21, according to an April 7 announcement.
The competition provides an opportunity for students to apply their classroom learning in real-world business scenarios. The event is significant because it allows participants to network with peers across the country and demonstrate their skills in areas such as finance, marketing, and hospitality.
In February, all members of URI’s DECA chapter who competed placed at a qualifying conference, making URI the only higher education institution in Rhode Island and Massachusetts with this distinction. Club founder and senior accounting major Amelia Oliveira said, “Not only does that speak volumes to how we’ve been preparing our students, but that also speaks volumes to URI’s education to students.”
Among those recognized were Oliveira and Sophie Reitz (first place in Entertainment Marketing), Jacob Betres and Evan Rodrigues (second place in Business-to-Business), Anna Songolo and Eliska Krajacich (third place in International Marketing), Anthony Bianchi (second place in Sales), and Gianluca Albanese with Leo Giusti (third place in Sports Marketing). To prepare for these competitions, Oliveira said the club teaches members how to present themselves professionally: “We teach kids the type of mannerisms they should present, how they should present themselves, what they need to wear for competition and different tactics.”
Oliveira started the club after seeing its popularity during her time at Mount Hope High School. She explained her motivation by saying: “I wanted to help create a sense of community between the different majors within the College of Business. I felt like there were accounting groups and finance groups, but there wasn’t really something where I could collaborate with people across different majors.” Interest quickly grew from about 20 initial signups to nearly 160 after outreach events.
Looking ahead, Oliveira said she hopes more students will have success at future competitions. “We’re looking to send nine students to the international competition, which would be our biggest group yet,” she said. “I look forward to coaching the students, giving them the motivation, and hopefully getting more wins for URI on an international level.”
