DECA Advisor and Marketing Teacher, Mrs.Ricardi

by Kelly Lamo (17)

​Mrs. Ricardi is the marketing teacher and DECA club advisor at Wethersfield High School. She has been teaching for 29 years and has been a great addition to the WHS staff and community for 14 years.

Mrs. Ricardi has had an interest for teaching and education since she was little. She started as a Special Ed major in college, and after experiencing concerns of not being able to find a job, she switched her major to business. After college, she landed a job where she was able to teach basic business and employability skills to students. Mrs. Ricardi described that experience and job opportunity, “the best of both worlds.”

​As an educated consumer, Mrs. Ricardi finds the subject of marketing very important and enjoys teaching it to kids, as everyone is a consumer. She describes the importance of marketing as, “I think as a consumer you need to understand what businesses do and how they want to lasso you in.”
Teaching at the high school level is a passion for Mrs. Ricardi and she especially enjoys seeing students be successful and apply those skills that they learned in her class.
Mrs. Ricardi teaches both marketing 1 and marketing 2. In marketing 1, she teaches students the basic marketing principles that surround the marketing mix and general economic concepts. Marketing 2 is where students apply the skills. They also participate in a sales unit and a few specialized units that the students get to choose.
Mrs. Ricardi also runs the marketing club DECA. She says the club is not just for students interested in marketing, as the club draws from all of the business topics: including management, sales, and accounting.
Students participate in civic and social projects and they recently did a leadership workshop.
Members of DECA also have the opportunity to compete at DECA conferences or they can just be apart of the club. Those who choose to compete at the conferences self-study in certain areas, which directs to their learning.
Mrs. Ricardi believes DECA is a, “great application of skills, but I also love that they get to meet other people and network, which is key.”
DECA members recently competed at the state conference, and 19 WHS students qualified for nationals. Next up for Mrs. Ricardi and DECA members, is the national conference in Nashville, Tennessee, which takes place on the weekend of April 23-26, 2016.