Dedication, perseverance, and passion; these describe the characteristics of the DECA State Leadership Conference (SLC) winners who not only won medals, but also created positive changes in Virginia. The SLC was held from Feb. 27 to Mar. 1 at Virginia Beach and allowed hardworking Bulldogs to showcase their months of hard work.
DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) has been one of the largest international business clubs across the globe since 1946. The organization prepares student leaders and future entrepreneurs to excel in marketing, finance, and business management for possible careers. The Stone Bridge DECA chapter has been highly achieving since its establishment, with first place in “Sports and Entertainment Marketing” and “Community Awareness.” Stone Bridge DECA continued this legacy into 2026 with significant wins at this year’s conference, such as a second place title for the “Community Awareness” category for the project “Her Voice.”
International Career Development Conference (ICDC) qualifies were Mahika Wahika, Elina Jadhav, Anvitha Pendyala, Ved Bhandare, Sukhi Mehadevan, Ishita Sharma, Bridget Bryne, Sophie Yeager, Ruhi Sharma, Jack Khaitan, Medha Nalumachu, Katie Lynch, Taylor Robertson, Avery Scranton, Ishani Jaiswal, Emma Zhang, Nathan Ward, Arslan Inanc, Lulu Tossounian, Nael Azmi, Darby Herke, Emaan Shuja, Sharay Vij, and Lucas Heflin.
DECA members have numerous categories to base their project off of, from project management to role play and test events. No matter the category chosen, participants are required to work on a full business project and may partner with a charity or service, or a self-made charity or service beginning from August to late February. If a DECA group decides to focus on a specific issue within their charity or service, they may also raise funds and awareness, but are required to write a 20-page business report and present a 15-minute presentation if they choose written entries or categories.
“I feel great about it,” Mahadevan said. “I’ve been competing in project management community awareness for three years now, specifically, with ‘Her Voice’ too. And it being my senior year, I was obviously very, kind of, very determined to get the outcome that I wanted. This cause means so much to me.”
The two-time champion and project implemented a variety of initiatives to raise awareness and engage members. Through collaborations and creative projects, the project reached a wider audience and addressed serious issues to bring light to the purpose of the organization.
“We hosted a power through paint night, which was like we had a presentation on recognizing teen violence, dating violence,” Mahadevan said. “We also hosted a pumpkin painting night with pink. We had multiple podcast episodes. We actually worked with two Epstein survivors on our podcast. We were able to have, I think, five episodes in total on our podcast.”
Winners spent consistent time working on their projects, dedicating hours every week to improve their ideas and presentations. EFB winner Medha Nalumachu worked with her teammates Ruhi Sharma and Jack Khaitan on a franchise business plan that they presented to the judges, adding creative elements to make their project stand out. Their chosen franchise was Panera and their given task was to create a new location to earn the judges’ approvals.
“I would say our written portion has got to be our biggest portion that helped us achieve accomplishment,” senior Nalumachu said. “We spend about like hours every week in our presentation. We printed out boards. We had to work on decorating that and as well as working on our writing so I feel like, I think, a lot of time and effort, as well as working on designing and not just the content.”
DECA is more than just a business competition, it also helps students grow in areas beyond finance and business, including public speaking and discovering what careers they might want to pursue in the future.
“DECA helped my confidence in presenting and helped me realize I want to major in business and opened up a lot of opportunities for me,” senior Bridget Bryne said. “Tying it into Pink, being able to work with local business and obtain fundraising for an actual cause is so meaningful to me because I know that, even if I don’t place at ICDC, I made a change.”
After their success at state level, members are now preparing and looking forward to competing at ICDC, which will take place in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of April. At this event,members will compete against DECA students from across the world and continue to build connections with future business leaders.
“I am excited because I went last year and I met a lot of people from different countries and different states and it’s fun to meet people that have the same goals and ambitions as you,” Bryne said.
