Three Lawrence High School seniors are preparing to take their business and marketing ideas to the global stage after earning second place at the New York State DECA Career Conference earlier this month.
Poonam Bansi, Arbi Corbita and Krish Gomes placed second in the Hospitality and Tourism Operations category at the statewide competition in Rochester, qualifying them for the DECA International Career Development Conference, which will take place April 24 to 29.
The international event brings together thousands of students from across the United States and around the world to compete in business-focused events covering marketing, finance, hospitality and entrepreneurship.
For Corbita, the journey to DECA began long before she officially joined the club.
Corbita first learned about the organization during a tour of Lawrence High School as a middle school student, when a senior described the opportunities the program offered, including the chance to compete and travel.
“That’s when I first got interested,” Corbita said. “But no one really introduced me to it until sophomore year when I saw my upperclassmen friends competing and going to Rochester. That’s when I got hooked.”
Gomes officially joined the club during his junior year and teamed up with Corbita and Bansi for this year’s competition.
Gomes said he had wanted to join DECA earlier in high school but was unable to until his junior year.
“What got me hooked with DECA is that it’s a very competitive business club, which I love,” he said. “I want to major in business in the future, so that’s why I take it really seriously.”
Bansi joined the team this year after initially planning to pursue a different career path.
“When I first started high school, I thought I was going to go into something medical,” she said. “But I realized that wasn’t really what I wanted to do, and I switched to business. Arbi and Krish told me about DECA, and I joined their group.”
The team spent months developing their project, which focused on a luxury sleeper train in Japan called Shiki-Shima. Their proposal explored how the high-end tourism experience could expand its reach to international travelers.
Corbita said the idea emerged during the group’s early meetings in September, when they began brainstorming possible topics for their hospitality and tourism project.
“We didn’t really know what we wanted to do at first,” she said. “But Krish had the idea of focusing on a luxury train in Japan, and we thought that was really interesting.”
Gomes explained that the team wanted to focus on a travel experience that was unique.
“You hear about resorts and hotels all the time,” Gomes said. “But nobody really thinks about going on vacation on a train.”
Their project analyzed how the train company could expand its international market while still preserving local culture and respecting Japanese traditions.
To develop their proposal, the students conducted extensive research and even interviewed a chief executive from a company connected to their topic.
When the winners were announced at the state competition, the team said they were unsure whether they had placed.
“At that point we were just thinking maybe we didn’t get it,” Corbita said. “Then they said ‘second place from Lawrence,’ and it felt surreal. Everything we worked for finally paid off.”
For Bansi, competing at the international level in her first year with DECA is both exciting and nerve-racking.
“It’s a big deal going to internationals,” she said. “We’re just trying to stay calm and focused so we can give the best presentation possible.”
