TRUMAN HIGH SCHOOL'S Amario Massey shines in California

(NOTE: via Dave Herndon, The News-Herald Newspapers)

Amario Massey will live on in Truman High School history.

He recently travelled to Anaheim, California to compete in the International DECA Conference. Not only was he the first Truman student to ever place, but he finished in the top two in his event among all the students who compete in DECA worldwide.

Three other Truman students also went to the competition, but they only attended various training academies, rather than compete with the thousands of students who were there. Those students were Sara Sherazi, Kirsten Collett and Junaid Syed.

Massey competed in the hotel and lodging management division.

He earned the honor of attending the international conference by qualifying at the DECA State Career Development Conference, held in March at Cobo Center in Detroit.

At the international conference he was given two different role play activities and a test, each was scored independently of the others for a total of three potentials honors to be earned.

Massey knows he finished in the top two for one of the role-play activities, but won’t find out his final standings for another few weeks.

“I know it was for one of the role-plays, but not which one,” he said.

The role-play activities require the student to read over a scenario, and then act out how they would fix it to the customer and the fictional hotel’s satisfaction. They are only given about 10 minutes to figure out their course of action.

Massey also got a $750 scholarship for his efforts.

The other three each received scholarships from DECA to cover the cost of attending the conference, but all had to fund their own trips to the conference.

There were several different learning academy opportunities and each student went to a different one so they could bring back information and training to their classmates.

“This really is a great learning opportunity for them,” Truman marketing teacher and DECA advisor Carly Lundgren-Barnard said. “They all learned a lot from this trip.”

Massey served as the DECA president, and Sherazi as the vice president for the year.

“I’ve already got my project picked out for next year,” Sherazi, a junior, said. “I want to win.”

The other three students are all seniors and will graduate out of the program.

The conference, held April 26-29 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, drew over 19,000 DECA members from across the globe who competed in projects.

DECA is an international organization that prepares students in marketing, management and entrepreneurship.