Rock Ridge DECA Sends Nine Students to International Conference After Strong State Showing

Zachary Sonnino's third-place finish in the Entrepreneurship Series at Minnesota's state DECA competition handed Rock Ridge High School its ninth berth to the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, a result earned against roughly 3,000 competitors from across Minnesota.

Rock Ridge's chapter secured eight of those spots through its overall state performance, with Sonnino's individual podium finish adding a ninth. The ICDC runs April 25 through 29 in Atlanta, where the Rock Ridge contingent will compete against students from across the United States and dozens of countries worldwide.

Sonnino and Corbet Hainey each placed in the top 25 on their written exams, a benchmark that signals both technical command and sustained preparation. Andrew Jacobson and Abigail Sather earned outstanding student recognition awards, the kind of credential that carries weight on college applications and in early hiring conversations with employers in sales, finance, and marketing.

The Iron Range is not typically where metro recruiting pipelines look first, which gives Rock Ridge's state showing real economic weight. St. Louis County school districts have leaned into career and technical education programs as a hedge against regional demographic decline, and results like these serve as measurable evidence that the investment is producing students capable of competing. DECA's format, which combines written exams with role-play scenarios and live presentations before working business professionals, mirrors actual entry-level hiring assessments in ways that classroom grades alone do not.

Families and boosters will now organize to fund the Atlanta trip, a cost that typically runs several thousand dollars for a nine-student delegation. Local employers and civic organizations have historically stepped in to sponsor travel and recognize participating students as examples of the next generation of Iron Range talent keeping pace with larger programs statewide.

Rock Ridge's business educators and coaching staff will spend the coming weeks refining the students' presentations before judges in Atlanta evaluate them alongside the top DECA programs in the country.