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.
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.
| 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 |
