Support John's Journey to DECA Nationals!

Hello! My name is Ian Costello, and I am the Business Program Lead for Collegiate Charter High School in Lowell MA. Over the last two years, we have designed and implemented our business program to help provide true business education to traditionally underserved and underrepresented youth.

We have gotten off to an amazing start, and this year we became a Chartered DECA school! For those who don't know, DECA is the largest business and career development conference across the nation. Within the United States, over half a million High School students take part in rigorous events taking place over the span of days. These events may be individual or group, and written or spoken. They are to assume the role of a businessperson and ultimately display leadership, professionalism, critical thinking, and public speaking skills. Students compete in their district, state, and nationally, but must rank in the top 10% to move on to each level of competition.

This year Collegiate had one of our Freshman business students, John Muthoni, rank in the top 5% nationally (yes...against 500,000 students!). His performance earned him three awards for his achievement at the DECA State Career Development Conference, and his spot in the DECA International Career Development Conference in Orlando Florida. John has impressed me, his peers, his family, and his school!

Now to the point! John's amazing performance has become expensive. It has always been my mission to provide my students with every opportunity as the schools with great financial resource. I never want their chance at success to be taken away because their families have to choose between rent and a school event. For this reason, I worked some magic and raised $2,500 at the start of the year from Fetch Rewards. The remaining balance was covered by myself and the school. As a Title I school, teachers and students are always getting creative when it comes to paying for trips, supplies, and events. In order to send John to Orlando to compete, we need to come up with $2,500 by the end of March. I know times are tough economically, but I would appreciate any donations you could spare to help John take home some DECA glass!