Aiken, South Carolina - Aiken High School DECA was among 1,188 chapters that received Thrive Level recognition during the 2025-2026 school year and will be commended at DECA's International Career Development Conference (ICDC) held April 25-28, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Each fall, DECA offers four campaigns for chapters to complete as part of their leadership program for the year. These campaigns are designed to grow membership engagement and build lasting partnerships within the school and local community. Chapters that achieve Thrive Level receive a commemorative pennant, flag, and plaque. The chapters also have an opportunity to participate in the ICDC. In order to receive Thrive Level recognition, the chapter completed two out of three-chapter campaigns, including the community service campaign, innovations and entrepreneurship campaign, and the promotional campaign. Alternatively, the chapter could have participated in the membership campaign, which challenged the chapter to attain two of three goals: recruit 20 professional members, recruit 20 alumni members or increase student membership by 20 more members from the previous school year.
The Aiken High School DECA members who contributed to the Thrive recognition were A'Vah Boedecker, Chance Cook, Tara Harris, Talea Hazzard, Ontaya Key, Karis Pontoo, Victor Salazar-Nava and Preston Smalley, with the assistance of their advisor, Rosalind Key.
Membership was our guiding principle in getting our chapter back on track this academic year. We focused not only on our student membership, but also on our Professional Membership. We reached both of our goals by having a robust campaign agenda and working with our campus community and Aiken as a whole. Those who believe in our good work and support our efforts have allowed us to reach our membership goals.
The Innovations + Entrepreneurship Campaign was an enjoyable experience for our DECA members. The challenge of the activity showcased our students' talents and creativity. The judging allowed us to incorporate our Professional Members into their newfound role within our DECA universe. We could not be prouder of the accomplishments of Aiken High School DECA so far this year.
"I am honored to work with the dedicated students of Aiken HS DECA," said Rosalind Key, Business Education Teacher.
About DECA Inc.
DECA is career and technical student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs with a career interest in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA enhances the preparation for college and careers by providing co-curricular programs that integrate into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business, and promote competition. DECA student members leverage their DECA experience to become academically prepared, community-oriented, professionally responsible, experience leaders. DECA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with over 300,000 members in 4,000 high school and college chapters in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Germany.
For more information about DECA, visit www.deca.org.