A total of 153 students from 12 Fairfax County Public Schools high schools were recognized as competitive-event winners at the Virginia DECA State Leadership Conference, held in Virginia Beach March 2-6.
Award-winning students earned the right to compete at the DECA International Career Development Conference April 23-26.
Among the 30 first-place recipients in various categories were the following students from the Sun Gazette coverage area:
• George C. Marshall High School: Sylvia Cheng.
• James Madison High School: Sara Lo, Salma Simab, Abigail Kaizer, Kate Kaizer.
• Oakton High School: Ishika Lal, Dustin Tran, Shradha Gandotra, Cindy Li, Esha Lohiya, Aditi Yadav, Tina Gao, Anjana Rajesh, Zach Dekoven, Hailey Khetan, Michelle Kwak, Leen Atari.
In addition, Olivia Zhang and Morgan Link from McLean High School tied for second place in the FIDM Entrepreneur of Tomorrow Challenge sponsored by FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. They will be recognized at the DECA International Career Development Conference.
Two FCPS students were elected to state office: Camryn Owens of Lake Braddock Secondary School was elected president, and Lauren Calhoun of Madison was elected vice president of Region 2.