UPDATE: Simon Youth Foundation students earn top 10 finish at international business conference

Caleb Carlisle and Blake Bolin at the DECA international event
with their Simon Youth Academy teacher Carol Bolin

Many of the students learning in our 25 nationwide Simon Youth Academies overcome difficult circumstances to earn their high school degree. We are so proud of each and every one of them and are even more excited when their hard work leads to recognition beyond the classroom.

Congratulations to the senior-student team of Caleb Carlisle and Blake Bolin from the Simon Youth Academy at Independence Center in Independence, Mo., for being named one of the 10 best projects at the DECA International Career Development Conference, April 30-May 3, 2011. For their winning project, the two presented a written and oral business review and case study. We first blogged about Carlisle and Bolin and two of their Simon Youth Foundation classmates after they were named top finishers in the Missouri statewide DECA contest.

Carlisle and Bolin's top 10 finish is even more impressive when you consider that the international DECA competition hosted 125 teams, and 15,000 people attended the event. In succeeding on the biggest of stages, the two are living the Simon Youth Foundation vision - Start Here. Go Anywhere.