Gloucester Alumni

Published: 03/24/2007

By Julio Chuy
Staff writer, Gloucester Daily Times

Congratulations to Gloucester High School senior Michael McDuffee, who will be representing the school's Distributive Education Clubs of America program at DECA's next International Competition, to be held next month in Orlando, Fla.

McDuffee earned a spot after finishing in the top three at the state competition where he needed to design a product and pitch it to a business.

During the state competition in Boston last week, nearly 2,000 students participated in the tournament. Nine were Gloucester students.

"I felt pretty confident going into the tournament," said McDuffee, who is in his first year in the program. "My goal in September was making it to the internationals."

He won the bid to Florida by pitching an MP3 player product to a health club.

Judges based their scores, among other things, on presentation, product idea and the confidence of the salesman, said McDuffee, who plans to head to Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston to study industrial design.

High School business department teacher Ann Grassetti, a mentor of the program, said she and other group members are proud of McDuffee's accomplishments.

Two classmates who have yet to be determined will join McDuffee in Florida, but the other two will only take part in enrichment activities.

This was a year to remember for McDuffee, who had already won a bid to the internationals. That bid came as part of leadership training in which he won a design competition where he had to come up with a logo for a T-shirt. His logo was used for T-shirts worn by students during the state meet.

McDuffee said competing and being judged for the international competition is an experience he won't forget. But before he and the others board the plane for Florida, they will be raising money for trip.

"We're beginning to raise money now," he said. "We need about $2,500 to head to Florida."

Anyone interested in donating to the group can contact Grassetti at the high school business department at 978-281-9870 or e-mail her at agrassetti@gloucester.k12.ma.us.