Mercer Island students were among the best in the world at the 65th Annual DECA International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Four Mercer Island High School students were among the 20 finalists in their events where they competed against over 130 of the top teams from around the world at the 2011 DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Orlando, Fla., April 30-May 3. Fifteen thousand students from all 50 states, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico and Guam competed in over 40 events during the four-day conference. The competitions consisted of real-life business scenarios and presentations in entrepreneurship, marketing, hospitality, finance, accounting and community service.

Olivia Rosen, sophomore, and Chris Roth, junior, teamed up in a hospitality role-play and were awarded a gold medal for placing in the top five teams in their role play and a blue ribbon for being one of the top 20 teams in the world overall. Wendy Ayers, senior, and Morgan Fink, senior, created and presented an advertising campaign for Starbucks.

They were also selected as one of the top 20 teams in the world and earned the highly regarded gold medal award for placing in the top 10 in the world at the closing awards ceremony. Mattie Friedman, a senior and CEO of Mercer Trade, Inc., joined the MIHS team to participate in a three-day Senior Management Institute for emerging leaders around the world.