The Finish Line announced that the winner of the company’s first-ever
Finish Line DECA Challenge is Rosemount High School (Rosemount,
Minnesota). The DECA Challenge gives high school students a real-world
opportunity to learn about marketing by advising the
company on how best to reach its customers.

The Rosemount team — Abby Ceglar, Sara Devitt, Katelyn Paget and their
advisor — was selected over two other finalists, Apponequet Regional
High School (Massachusetts) and Wichita High School East (Kansas), and
a number of other DECA high school chapters nationwide who entered the
inaugural competition.

Challenge participants were given detailed research questions to
explore and were encouraged to visit Finish Line stores. As part of the
assignment, students also addressed the retailer’s pricing,
merchandising and customer service standards as well as examined the
company’s overall business model. Challenge participants posted video
presentations on YouTube for Finish Line executives to review and
score. Earlier this month, three finalist teams traveled to Finish
Line’s corporate headquarters in Indianapolis to present their findings
in person to the company’s executive team.

“The partnership with Finish Line has provided wonderful learning
opportunities for our students,” explains Shane Thomas, director of
competitive events for DECA. The Finish Line DECA Challenge offered our
students the chance to see how a leading national retailer operates.
This real world business experience is invaluable to our emerging
leaders as they consider their future career options. We hope to
replicate the Finish Line DECA Challenge model by engaging other
businesses in similar events with our chapters.”

Based on the final presentations, the DECA chapter from Rosemount High
School was selected as the winning team and will receive an all-expense
paid trip to the DECA International Career Development Conference in
Louisville, Kentucky in April, courtesy of Finish Line. The Conference
is the highlight of the DECA year for the approximately 15,000 student
members, advisors, business professionals and alumni who attend.

“It was inspiring to see the level of energy and passion that these
students conveyed in tackling this challenge,” said Finish Line Chief
Executive Officer Glenn Lyon. “The students provided us with valuable
feedback that we can consider implementing in our current operations
and shared fresh new ideas for reaching out to our core customers. We
thank everyone who participated and look forward to continuing the
Finish Line DECA Challenge in years to come.” 

For more than 60 years, DECA has been working on improving education
and career opportunities for students interested in careers in
marketing, management and entrepreneurship. It’s worked with over
185,000 students in all 50 states, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Germany
and Mexico.