U.S. Army Signs Memorandum of Understanding with DECA, Inc. at 2012 Army All-American Bowl

Jan 4, 2012

On January 4, 2012, the U.S. Army signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DECA, Inc. providing a cooperative framework to increase collaboration in support of helping our nation’s young people achieve strong and productive futures.

This partnership is an example of the mutually supportive relationships among educators, youth organizations, schools and the Army to ensure the broadest number of young people have opportunities to build skills, gain education and learn to be leaders. The U.S. Army and DECA have agreed to look for opportunities to collaborate, develop programming, educate policy makers, devise policy initiatives and heighten awareness among the education community.

John Fistolera, Assistant Executive Director for Corporate and External Affairs for DECA, joined Major General James McDonald, Commanding General, U.S. Army Cadet Command and Major General David Mann, Commanding General, U.S. Army Recruiting Command at a ceremony during the 2012 Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. Before making the partnership official, Maj. Gen. McDonald talked about how the Army and DECA’s goals and values match up perfectly, while Maj. Gen. Mann emphasized the Army’s commitment to working with educators. Mr. Fistolera closed his remarks by sharing how proud DECA is to have a partner like the Army to develop leaders.

Additional photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/goarmyphotos/.

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With over a 60 year history, DECA has touched the lives of more than ten million students, educators, school administrators and business professionals. DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. DECA is organized into two unique student divisions -- the High School Division includes 185,000 members in 5,000 schools and the Collegiate Division includes over 15,000 members in 200 colleges and universities. To learn more about DECA, visit www.deca.org.

For more than 11 years, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl has been the Nation’s premier high school football game, serving as the preeminent launching pad for America’s future college and NFL stars. Adrian Peterson, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Marcus Lattimore and Andrew Luck all made their national debuts as U.S. Army All-Americans. The 2011 U.S. Army All-American Bowl drew a crowd of nearly 38,000 to the Alamodome, and was the most-watched sporting event on television over the weekend, excluding the NFL playoffs.

For more information on the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and its related events visit www.usarmyallamericanbowl.com and www.goarmy.com/events/aab or the official Facebook and Twitter pages located at http://www.facebook.com/USArmyAllAmericanBowl and www.twitter.com/armyallamerican.

Photo: (L-R) John Fistolera, DECA; MG David Mann, USAREC; MG Mark McDonald, USACC sign a Memorandum of Understanding at the 2012 Army All-American Bowl