Fairhaven High School student attends DECA International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia
Posted on 05/07/2026
Fairhaven, MA – Fairhaven High School DECA member, Leigha Nightlinger, attended the annual DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) that took place in Atlanta, GA, on April 25-28. ICDC spotlights DECA’s top student performers from nearly all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Canada, Puerto Rico and Germany.

This year’s ICDC featured over 26,000 members, advisors and business professionals in attendance, making it the largest conference in DECA’s history.

During the school year, more than 250,000 of DECA’s 315,000 student members participate in the organization’s competitive events program, competing for local and regional titles. The competitions are designed to simulate real-life business scenarios and test students’ academic understanding and skills development. The top state and provincial winners put their talents to the test during the program’s final round of competition in Atlanta.

Leigha Nightlinger from FHS DECA attended ICDC to participate in Principles of Hospitality and Tourism.

Leigha Nightlinger competed at both the district level and state level in her category, achieving 1st place at the District 8 Conference in January and 2nd place in the state in March. She worked hard to place where she did and made Fairhaven High School extremely proud by being able to represent our community at the international level. Qualifying for the international conference was an incredible achievement in and of itself and Leigha now has the title of the first Fairhaven DECA member to ever qualify for it.

About DECA Inc.
DECA is a career and technical student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs with a career interest in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA enhances the preparation for college and careers by providing co-curricular programs that integrate into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business and promote competition. DECA student members leverage their DECA experience to become academically prepared, community-oriented, professionally responsible, and experienced leaders. DECA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with over 298,000 members in more than 4,450 high school and college chapters in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Germany.

For more information about DECA, visit www.deca.org.