KINGSTON, R.I. – April 7, 2026 – Several business students from the University of Rhode Island are gearing up to put their education and business skills to the test in Louisville, Kentucky, competing at the Collegiate Distributive Education Clubs of America’s International Career Development Conference between April 18 and 21.
DECA is an organization that prepares high school and college students for careers in business fields such as finance, marketing and hospitality. It includes more than 4,000 high school chapters and more than 200 collegiate chapters.
In February the club saw strong results, as the URI chapter was the only higher education institution in Rhode Island and Massachusetts that had all competitors place in a qualifying conference for the DECA International Conference.
For club founder and senior accounting major Amelia Oliveira, it was a humbling experience.
“Not only does that speak volumes to how we’ve been preparing our students, but that also speaks volumes to URI’s education to students,” said Oliveira.
Among those that placed were: Oliveira and Sophie Reitz, who took home first place in the Entertainment Marketing Category; Jacob Betres and Evan Rodrigues took home second-place honors in the Business-to-Business category; Anna Songolo and Eliska Krajacich captured third in the International Marketing category; Anthony Bianchi took home second in the Sales category and Gianluca Albanese and Leo Giusti placed third in Sports Marketing.
To make their case, Oliveira and Reitz created a case study on branding a country club toward people in their 20s and 30s. They had an hour to prepare and 15 minutes to present their marketing strategy to judges.
Though many students struggle with presenting in front of judges, Oliveira and Reitz credit their club for having them prepared for the DECA conference.
“We teach kids the type of mannerisms they should present, how they should present themselves, what they need to wear for competition and different tactics,” said Oliveria.
The Warren native started the club in 2024 after participating in high school. She said at Mount Hope High School, DECA was a well-known club that was highly popular for students.
Knowing the organization’s strong reputation for hosting competitions, Oliveira also thought it was the perfect opportunity for URI students to demonstrate what they’ve learned and network with people across the country.
“I wanted to help create a sense of community between the different majors within the College of Business,” Oliveira said. “I felt like there were accounting groups and finance groups, but there wasn’t really something where I could collaborate with people across different majors.”
Oliveira initially saw around 20 students interested in joining the club, but fast forward to August and the number had grown exponentially. At the Rhody Tailgate Block party, the club had almost 160 signups. Olivera says that not all the 160 students who signed up will become members, but it puts how important the club is into perspective.
Moving forward, the club hopes to succeed in future DECA competitions.
“We’re looking to send nine students to the international competition, which would be our biggest group yet,” said Oliveira. “I look forward to coaching the students, giving them the motivation, and hopefully getting more wins for URI on an international level.”