Seneca junior ‘a jack of all trades’

Her name is Victoria Rutkowski.

As a junior at Seneca High School, she has already accomplished much, whether in the classroom, on the sports field or on the running track.

“Vicki is like a jack of all trades,” shares Kristina Foster, new advisor of the Seneca DECA chapter. “With being an academic weapon and dominant in athletics, she is just a ball of energy in anything that she wants to take on.”

Rutkowski sat down with The Pinelands Sun to discuss her accomplishments with the recent New Jersey DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) State Career Development Conference, but the discussion led to much more.

With nearly a 70-year history, DECA has impacted the lives of more than 10 million students, educators, school administrators and business professionals since it was founded in 1946, according to its website. New Jersey DECA is organized under the auspices of the New Jersey Department of Education’s (NJDOE) Office of Career and Technical Education and is managed by Kean University’s College of Business and Public Management under a grant from the DOE.

Rutkowski qualified this year for the prestigious International Career Development Conference (ICDC) for the third consecutive year, underscoring her sustained excellence and leadership with the program. During her freshman year, she joined Seneca’s DECA chapter at the urging of her then-business teacher/DECA advisor Grace McCloskey.

Rutkowski thought, “Why not try it?”

Although she was not too sure what she was getting into, Rutkowski signed up for a role-play event on the topic of district-level principles in marketing.

“You take a test beforehand with 100 questions and 60 minutes to complete,” she explains, a test taken at Seneca High School. “Then during the day of the event, you go into a little room, get a paper that tells you about some kind of business scenario and some kind of problem they are experiencing and some things they want you to talk about.

“You get 10 minutes to think about it,” which Rutkowski noted is not a lot of time. Students then discuss one on one with a judge their ideas of a solution to the scenario.

“You are graded based on what your idea is, how you present your ideas … and the knowledge you brought to the table,” Rutkowski explains. She ended up earning first place in her very first DECA competition.

“I was very proud of myself,” she admitted.

From that point on, Rutkowski has won many DECA accolades. As a freshman, she went on to win first place in states and won an award for testing high on the initial test during the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Anaheim, California.

“It was a lot of fun,” she recalled of her first ICDC competition. “On top of being in a new place … I’ve never been to California. And (I was) also competing against all these amazing people from all over the country and world.”

More accolades came in Rutkowski’s sophomore year, when she took on a small leadership position with Seneca’s DECA chapter to help advise her peers on what to expect during competition and provided resources she herself had. Rutkowski remembers spending hours making flash cards – 400 different types – to help her study.    

Rutkowski competed in the topic of marketing communications. She won first place in districts; fifth place at states; and competed in ICDC last year in Orlando, Florida. This year, she is serving as co-president of Seneca’s DECA chapter, which numbers about 50 members.

“It’s been an honor to be president,” she noted. “It’s a big responsibility and it’s very gratifying to know I’ve earned that responsibility, and my advisor has chosen me worthy of that.”

Rutkowski decided to compete in retail merchandising this year. She came in second in districts and placed first on her exam. She qualified for the 2026 ICDC at states with a seventh-place finish and was the only Seneca student to qualify this year, when the event was held on the weekend of April 25 to 28 in Atlanta.

This year, Rutkowski decided to forgo the ICDC competition with efforts set on senior year. During the last two years, she has garnered support from local businesses to help further her DECA journey.   

“It’s a huge process to get all the funding,” she acknowledged.

Looking ahead, Rutkowski will work on securing funds to continue her journey as well as others next year. The Seneca DECA Chapter also saw leadership transition when Foster stepped in. The DECA club meets once a month. During competition time, members meet almost weekly for study sessions to prepare.

“Over the past three years, DECA has become a big part of my academic life,” Rutkowski observed. “I enjoy challenging myself at competitions, meeting new people, learning new things and experiencing new locations.”

Rutkowski said DECA has helped with her communication skills and to think on her feet. Her confidence in those skills has sharpened.

“I like the part of being in positions where I get to do that,” she explained. “I also find it really fun to present to judges, who are parents, past teachers and past advisors.”

Winning also has been a great part of the process, Rutkowski observes.  

“It’s always fun to see that the hard work that I’ve put in led to some kind of success and that kind of motivates me further,” she said of her DECA experience. “On top of the whole process of being really interesting, it’s something kind of fresh.

“It’s not the typical things you do in school; it’s something new.”

Outside of DECA, Rutkowski is a second-year varsity starter on the girls field hockey team with four goals and four assists this season. Foster coaches the team and has seen Rutkowski grow over the past few years.

“She has always been a unique individual and she’s got this amazing sense of time management,” Foster enthuses. “I don’t think she even realizes because it’s so second nature to her at this point.”

Rutkowski is a two-year varsity member on the girls lacrosse team and three-year varsity member of the girls winter track team.

She is also a peer leader in the school’s Anti-Defamation League and belongs to the Spanish Club, where she was awarded a state Seal of Biliteracy for Spanish, making her tri-lingual in English, Polish and Spanish.

Rutkowski was nominated for the Rensselaer Medal for high-school juniors who excel in science and math. She was nominated for Governor’s School of New Jersey in Engineering and Technology and for the American Legion Auxiliary Jersey Girls State, a summer program in leadership and civic.

“On top, I volunteer at my church a lot,” she said. “I volunteer at the library over the summer, and I also play the piano.”

She also bakes and has picked up a new skill in crocheting.

“It’s been fun.”