North Lenoir High School junior Gracie Herring and marketing teacher and DECA chapter advisor Ashley Heath check the schedule for next month’s state DECA conference, where Gracie will be honored by North Carolina DECA as one of the state’s Diamond students. 

Gracie Herring sparkles.

It’s a brightness born of her natural exuberance. It’s also as clue as to why North Carolina DECA selected the North Lenoir High School junior as a Diamond Student for the state of North Carolina.

“I’m not afraid to be flamboyant,” the 16-year-old said. “I’m really big on reaching out to people. I just try to spread the word on DECA and get people involved and get people pumped up about it.”

DECA chapters on high school and college campuses prepare young leaders in the fields of marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Gracie has been a member of the North Lenoir chapter since it organized two years ago. This year she’s chapter president and, according to chapter advisor and marketing teacher Ashley Heath, she’s the chapter’s sparkplug.

“She has so much to bring to the table this year and share with others as a great leader,” said Heath, who nominated Gracie for the Diamond award. Marketing classes like Heath’s are offered as part of LCPS’s Career and Technical Education program.

Diamond students will be recognized by North Carolina DECA at the state conference in Greensboro, which begins Feb. 27. Along with workshops, the conference gives students a chance to submit projects that could move them on to competition at DECA’s International Career Development Conference.

Last school year, Gracie and classmate Karrie-Lyn Deaver organized a blood drive at school, laid out the plan and the outcomes in a 10-page report and finished in the top 10 in state competition – a result that took them and Heath to the international conference in Orlando, Florida.

This year she’s competing again with a marketing project built around the North Lenoir Flight Shop, a pop-up store for North Lenoir logowear advertised prominently in a display case in the school’s lobby.

“We have a ton of North Lenoir apparel,” Gracie said. “We’ve decorated the display case and have to write a paper (for competition). Basically, we have to collect and show all our data from the Flight Shop, anything we sell, everything we have in the store.”

Proceeds from the Flight Shop go to the marketing class. “It’s like a consistent fundraiser,” she said.

Away from school, she’s still marketing as manager of the Instagram account for Neuse News, a job that grew out of a summer internship at the online publication.

“I’ve always been into marketing and social media and business and have been interested in how all that works,” Gracie said, adding that DECA serves that interest.

“DECA helps me be really creative. It’s a way to help me organize my work,” she said. “I wasn’t really professional when it came to business attire or when it came to speaking professionally. Now it helps me with my job. Anytime I need to write a paper or fill out an application or scholarship, it ties into how I can be professional and word things professionally.”

A budding marketing professional then? Probably not.

“I want to be a nurse. I know that’s weird – like it doesn’t really tie in – but every time I think about it I see that a big part of marketing is relationships with people and how to speak to people and how to handle situations well. DECA has taught me so much about how to present myself and how to speak and handle any type of situation. I feel like being a nurse after being in DECA will really help me understand people more.”