In two weeks, Newton High School Seniors Alexis Dirksen and Tamika Rodenborn will be headed to Orlando, Florida to compete in the DECA International Career Development Conference. They qualified for the conference after their joint project placed second at the Iowa DECA Competition. Tamika said that she was mostly responsible for coming up with the product for their project.

“We designed a hand warmer with chemicals inside it. You boil it to reactivate the chemicals. It’s bear shaped and fits in your palm. You press the nose to activate it, then you boil it to reactivate it.”

Alexis added that her role was to primarily develop the business and marketing plan for the product.

“For how to sell and distribute, which is where my expertise lies, and the financials.”

Dirksen and Rodenborn previously teamed up two years ago and qualified for the DECA International Conference. Teams from across the world compete at the conference, which begins Saturday, April 26th. Hear more from Newton High School DECA students Alexis Dirksen and Tamika Rodenborn on today’s Let’s Talk Newton.