UT Dallas DECA Students Earn 40 Top Places at State Competition

Forty UT Dallas students made first-, second- or third-place showings in competitive events they entered at the Texas Collegiate DECA Career Development Conference in Austin Feb. 17 and 18.

“To put this into perspective, our students competed in 20 different events, and we earned 40 of the possible 60 first-, second- and third-place spots in each event,” Amy Troutman, advisor to the Jindal School-based UT Dallas DECA chapter and director of JSOM’s Professional Program in Accounting, said.

Kiran Navaneeth
Kiran Navaneeth

Of the chapter’s 116 members, 72 attended the conference, held on the UT Austin campus. An international organization with divisions for high school and college students, DECA prepares members for business careers in fields ranging from culinary arts and fashion to entrepreneurship, finance and marketing. The Collegiate Division claims more than 15,000 members in 275 colleges and universities.

The schools competing at the state conference included Texas Tech University, UT Austin, the University of Houston and the University of North Texas.

“I could not be more proud of the amazing job that our students did,” Troutman said, noting that all 72 UT Dallas students scored well enough to compete in competitions to be held at the International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, Calif., April 19 to 22.

Troutman is hoping to take some, if not all, the qualifiers to the California conference.

Among those planning to make the trip is JSOM senior Kiran Navaneeth. President of the DECA at UT Dallas chapter, Navaneeth also serves as vice president of the state chapter. She and partner Brandon Pires placed first in the Business Ethics competition in Austin.

2017 Texas DECA Career Development Conference
EVENT UT DALLAS CONTESTANT RESULTS CLASS/MAJOR
Accounting Rutvick Velaga 1st Sophomore/Finance
Accounting George Peng 3rd Senior/Healthcare Management
Banking Financial Services Patrick Doyle 2nd Sophomore/Finance and Economics
Corporate Finance Nandini Singh 1st Junior/Finance and Economics
Corporate Finance Saimanoj Putlur 3rd Sophonore/Finance
Fashion Merchandising and Marketing Nimra Khan 3rd Sophomore/Healthcare Studies
Hotel and Lodging Uday Matta Finalist Freshman/Marketing
Restaurant and Food Service Management Amanda Hernandez 3rd Senior/Accounting
Travel and Tourism Risheek Kosuri 3rd Sophomore/Finance
Business Ethics Kiran Navaneeth and Brandon Pires 1st Senior/ Healthcare Management and Senior/Biology
Business Ethics Siddhant Ankolekar and Neel Raguboopathi 2nd Sophomore/Biology and Healthcare Management and Freshman/Business Administration
Business Ethics Sairavish Akkineni and Barghavi Akkineni 3rd Freshman/Psychology and Senior/Psychology
Business Ethics Sesha Dasari and Ekin Bukulmez Finalist Junior/Finance and Junior/Global Business
Business Ethics Dalton Owens and Sirisha Karri Finalist Sophomore/Accounting and Junior/Marketing
Event Planning Lily Hannigan and Ben Douthit 1st Junior/Crimonology and Junior/Global Business
Event Planning Nitya Eleti and Spurthi Pasham Finalist Senior/Healthcare Studies and Senior/Healthcare Studies
Financial Statement Analysis Soham Daptardar and Ben Henderson 1st Senior/Finance and Economics and Junior/Economics
Financial Statement Analysis Rebecca Raymond and Diana Pinzon 2nd Senior/Business Administration and Senior/Accounting
Financial Statement Analysis Meehwish Ali and Sneha Ramashesha Finalist Senior/Accounting and Senior Accounting
Human Resource Management Pingping Cui Finalist Junior/Information Technology and Systems
International Marketing Konan Mirza 1st Sophomore/Finance and Economics
Sales Management Meeting Alisha Khoja 3rd Senior/Computer Science
Sales Management Meeting Cynthia Liu Finalist Sophomore/Finance
Sports and Entertainment Marketing Aman Vakharia and Jonathan Molinar 1st Senior/Finance and Senior Finance
Sports and Entertainment Marketing Alix Ilie and Amir Meshki 2nd Freshman/Finance and Freshman/Marketing
Sports and Entertainment Marketing Harshith Dasara and Chandranshu Rao 3rd Junior/Healthcare Management and Biology and Junior/Computer Science
Advertising Campaign Thuy-Mi Le and Frank Moreno 3rd Senior/Marketing and Junior/Computer Engineering
Advertising Campaign Kishan Patel, Raveen Diora and Pranav Thanki Finalist Sophomore/Healthcare Management, Junior/Information Technology and Systems and Junior/Finance
Advertising Campaign Nikita Paturu, Nivetha Tamilmani and Jasmin Hakeem Finalist Senior/Healthcare Management, Junior/Information Technology and Systems and Junior Accounting
Advertising Campaign Tina Allahyari, Zahra Merchant and Matthew Hong Finalist Freshman/Accounting, Freshman/Finance and Freshman/Marketing
Business Research Jacob Watkins and Hannah Gleason 2nd Sophomore/Political Science and Freshman/Neuroscience
Business Research Pinkey Patel, Aswin Narayanan and Vikram Pentakota 3rd Senior/Healthcare Studies, Senior/Healthcare Studies and Senior/Healthcare Studies
Business Research Niveditha Srinivasa and Akhil Mutyala Finalist Freshman/Accounting and Freshman/Information Technology and Systems
Business Research Varsha Mynampally and Subhiksha Balasundar Finalist Freshman/Business Administration and Sophomore/Finance
Emerging Technology Marketing Strategies Gaurav Sethi and Minh Chang 2nd Sophomore/Actuarial Science and Freshman/Finance and Economics
Emerging Technology Marketing Strategies Jyh-Yih (Frank) Yang and Yin Hsuan (Joy) Pan 3rd Sophomore/Computer Science and Junior/Marketing
Entrepreneurship Sahiti Yarakala, Nihitha Woona and Roja Todigala Finalist Sophomore/Biology, Sophomore Biology and Senior/Biology and Healthcare Management
Entrepreneurship Akhil Nune, Kezia Mathai Amal Sebastian Finalist Junior/Biomedical Engineering, Junior/Accounting and Freshman, Computer Science
Entrepreneurship Timothy Montequin and Shivangi Gandhi Finalist Freshman/Accounting and Freshman/Accounting
Professional Sales Keerthy Benny 1st Freshman/Accounting

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