![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)
![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)
![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)
DECA to Internationals
Business Group Heads to Florida for ICDC
Photo Courtesy of Adri Karmakar
Seniors Justin Nita. Grant Lee and Adri Karmakar advance to the International level in DECA. On April 28, these seniors, along with others from DECA, are to compete in Orlando, FL. “Making ICDC was definitely an awesome reward for all the hard work we put in,” Lee said. “And I’m extremely grateful to be able to not only represent CPHS DECA at Internationals, but also to go to Disney World.”
April 26, 2019
The DECA team is going to Orlando, FL – not for winning the Super Bowl, but for qualifying for a bid at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). The business group leaving for Orlando on Friday consists of DECA adviser Kimberly Stapleton, senior club co-presidents Justin Nita and Adri Karmakar, senior Grant Lee and junior Siddhartha Madala. They are competing on Sunday at the competition.
Over 19,000 high school students, teacher advisers, business professionals and alumni are to attend the competition. The members invited have qualified to attend based on superior performance at the district and state level.
“Making Internationals was probably one of the happiest moments of my life,” Karmakar said. “Ever since joining DECA, my goal was to compete in ICDC because of its exposure and prestige.”
Throughout the event, the objective of DECA members is to demonstrate their college and career ready knowledge and skills by participating in DECA’s industry-validated Competitive Events Program. With a panel of over 1,000 judges, the competition level rises considerably.
“In the past, we competed in role-playing events which required minimal preparation, but after poor results, we decided to compete in the Buying and Merchandising Operations Research Event,” Nita said. “We wrote a 20-page report of Sprout’s business practices and we are more prepared than ever for anything that the judges can throw at us.”
Stapleton said that she feels strongly about their buying and merchandising event, and believes they have a good chance of making finals. After a top-five finish last year with graduates Greg Phea, Rithvik Saravanan and Shiva Kumar, Stapleton said that this year’s group has a lot of potential in repeating DECA’s success from last year.
“There are some good dynamics there,” Stapleton said. “A lot of good energy behind it, and I think that’s one of the key things that sets you apart from other people because at this level, everybody has a great project.”
All business aside, a perk of qualifying for ICDC is being able to go to Disney World and Universal Studios. On Monday night, there is a DECA Day at Universal Studios, where the park closes to the public and it’s open to only DECA members from 7-11 p.m.
“I’m happy I was able to advance to Internationals and help represent CPHS,” Madala said. “Being able to compete at such a high level is definitely a great privilege and the experience is made exciting with the trip to Universal and Disney.”
For the seniors, this is their last shot to place in the top-five at ICDC. Lee said that doing well at ICDC to cap off his senior year would be the cherry on top.
“There is no better feeling than winning,” Lee said. “So, if we were to take home the grand prize, it would be a huge accomplishment not just for my groupmates and me, but also for CPHS DECA as a whole, as it would be a giant step forward for the program.”
