Two Warrenton High School (WHS) students just returned from Anaheim, CA, where they competed in the DECA International Career Development Conference, finishing seventh in the world. Samantha Eskew and Camryn Petersmeyer, both Seniors, completed April 27-30 against 728 schools in the School Based Enterprise – Food Operations category.

DECA, known as a marketing club, is short for Distributive Educator Clubs of America. Micheal Eskew, Marketing teacher at WHS, walked his students through the process, then traveled with them to the competition.

Both girls thought signing up for DECA would just give them a study hall experience, but when they got more involved, they were excited about the possibilities for taking over The Trading Post, the school’s snack shop, open before school and during lunch.

“Could you imagine what we could do with this?” said Eskew. “What can we do to improve this place?”

“I was motivated by my teacher,” said Petersmeyer. “None of this is really my thing. But I became immersed. Being in DECA pushed me out of my comfort zone and now I love The Trading Post.”

Micheal Eskew said a 42-page essay written by the students first gained them a Gold Standard Certification Award, allowing them to skip straight to the international competition in Anaheim.

Petersmeyer said competition included presenting the essay, which was a detailed business plan for The Trading Post. Petersmeyer and Eskew took over the enterprise this school year and decided to see how far they could take it.

“We learned to deal with customers and added some new items to the snack shop,” said Petersmeyer. “It was Samantha’s idea to add a coffee shop. We also added Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and made ice cream sandwiches. They were a hit.”

Samantha Eskew said as they were preparing their business plan they learned a lot about being community oriented, price oriented and service oriented. They became familiar with product and service management, including the ins and outs of stock turnover.

The partners gave a ten-minute presentation during the competition, first landing them in the top 21 out of 728 schools.

“We ended up in the top 10 at the secondary show,” said Petersmeyer. “We competed against countries like Guam, Germany, China, the Czech Republic and Canada and ended up seventh in the world.”

“We shed some tears through the process,” said Eskew. “We both had high hopes for the competition. There was lots and lots of girl drama.”

“I couldn’t have asked for a better partner,” said Petersmeyer.

Other members of the DECA club accompanied Eskew and Petersmeyer to the competition. All expenses were earned by the proceeds taken in by The Trading Post. Instead of the historic earning of $3,000 for the shop, this year’s proceeds were $12,000.

The girls said proceeds from the shop provided ways to fund service projects and inventory for next year. It also covers membership and competition fees for all DECA members.

A Resolution from the MO House of Representatives was given to the students for their excellent competition, signed by Representative Jeff Myers of the 42nd District.

Eskew plans to attend Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she will pursue biological sciences and marketing majors. Petersmeyer will attend the University of Missouri at Columbia studying nutrition and dietetics.