Island students score big in business competitions
Ten Shelter Island students brought home trophies from the Suffolk County Regional DECA Competition earlier this month. DECA was formerly known as Distributive Education Clubs of America.
More than 1,000 students entered the Jan. 4 competition at Suffolk County Community College’s Selden campus. Categories were designed to prepare students for careers in various fields and entrepreneurship by having them compete in skill sets designed to expand their abilities.
The students who were honored at the regionals are Abby Kotula, who took first place in financial consulting and Tyler Gulluscio, who took second place in public speaking. Bradley Batten also took home a trophy in financial consulting, while Emmett Cummings and Domingo Gil won trophies in the public speaking competition.
Lucas Quigley-Dunning, Jane Richards and Emma Gallagher won trophies in the hospitality and tourism selling competition. Matthew Strauss won a trophy for job interview skills and Zeb Mundy returned with a trophy in food marketing.
It’s only a few years since a DECA Club started on Shelter Island with 13 students under the direction of guidance counselor Martha Tuthill, who brought the program to students here from Greenport, where she had previously worked. Today, the club has 33 members with Ms. Tuthill and math teacher James Theinert leading the effort.
“Mr. Theinert and I focus on preparing the students who wish to compete at the New York State competition in Rochester, N.Y.,” Ms. Tuthill said.
In addition to the competitions, the two teachers schedule field trips each spring that have included visits to the New York Stock Exchange, the New York office of Spotify and the Barclays Center to learn about sports marketing.
They haven’t identified this year’s venue for the spring trip, but expect to shortly, Ms. Tuthill said.
Superintendent Brian Doelger noted that schools with much larger populations don’t have DECA teams as large as Shelter Island’s. Ms. Tuthill said she doesn’t have exact numbers, but agreed there were larger schools with smaller teams at this year’s competition.
How many of the 10 trophy winners will go on to state competition in Rochester in February hasn’t been determined.
