By Brandon Klein
The spirit of entrepreneurship was celebrated by the Olentangy Local School District and its high school chapters for a national nonprofit Wednesday morning.
The DECA chapters for Orange, Liberty and Olentangy high schools each inducted a local entrepreneur into the district’s Business Hall of Fame: Karla Furrer of Bella Studio, Theresa Flores of TrafffickFree and Mikey Sorboro of Mikey’s Late Night Slice.
Each gave their own take on entrepreneurship and what it takes to be successful. Flores and Furrer both said it’s something that came their way.
DECA started in 1946 and prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.
The program started in 1992 at Olentangy and now has more than 100 students combined for all three high schools, said Mike Rees, the DECA adviser for Liberty High School.
Rees will retire from the position after this year.
“Mr. Rees is what makes DECA, DECA,” said Lauren Waldrop, a senior at Liberty.
She said one of their projects is to encourage more women to get into entrepreneurship as the demographic makes up 36 percent of business owners.
Last week, the Liberty chapter did a marketing-related activity with students at Hyatts Middle School, similar to the TV show “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to successful industry titans.
“Our DECA chapters at all three high schools are some of the most decorated in the country,” Olentangy Superintendent Mark Raiff said.
Prior inductees included Ohio Gov. John Kasich when he was a congressman in 2003, Jeg Coughlin Sr. of Jeg’s High Performance in 2006 and Jeni Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2010.
Gazette reporter Brandon Klein can be reached by email or on Twitter at @brandoneklein.
