Two students from Valencia High School have been elected as state officers during the California DECA State Career Development Conference.

Christopher Carlsen was elected as Vice President of Southern California based on a majority vote by California DECA members. His position puts him in charge of all of the duties required of Southern California.

Joel Beckwith was appointed by a majority board vote by a panel as the vice president of public relations. His position puts him in charge of working with media outlets, businesses and communities, and he serves as the vice president to the state president.

The two students will serve as state officers for the 2016-2017 term.

Beckwith and Carlsen are the first students Valencia DECA/FBLA has ever sent to the state office and they look forward to serving. They will serve with Team 66 and alongside four other officers from California DECA.

This is an incredible opportunity for the two students as they seek to grow the membership of DECA throughout their school, community, region and state.

Joel and Kristen Beckwith placed third in their Creative Marketing Project and qualified for the International Career Development Conference.

Member Mark Gray took second place in Business Services Marketing with an oral presentation referred to as a Role Play. In addition to the individual awards, Valencia also took home an award for the third highest membership increase by percentage throughout the entire state.

Valencia DECA/FBLA is a co-curricular business education program at Valencia High School that seeks to combine business education with interactive competitive conferences that stimulates the students’ skills in professional areas.

For more information about Valencia DECA/FBLA, visit decafbla.weebly.com