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VIDALIA, La. — Adiella Keyser, a senior from Vidalia High School, has a lot on her plate.

She spends some of her time excelling in all of her classes. The rest of her time, she is usually busy at one of her two jobs at Red Top Seafood and Belk, she said.

Still, Keyser found the time to run and be elected to represent her small town as a state officer for the Distributive Education Club of America in the spring of this year.

“I’m the Vice President of Marketing Communications,” she said. “I’m in charge of all the social media, making sure everything’s properly communicated throughout Louisiana DECA such as meetings and conferences and just trying to keep the morale up.”

She recently added one more thing to her plate when she signed up to join the U.S. Air Force. Upon graduating from high school, Keyser said she plans to head straight into basic training to learn to become a pilot and teach Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape — which instructs both military personnel and civilians hot to survive in hostile environments.

Keyser is one of six state officers for Louisiana DECA.

As a DECA officer, Keyser had the opportunity to travel to Anaheim, California in April and met with other DECA officers from around the world at the International Career Development Conference. Keyser said she enjoyed swapping DECA pins with the other officers and sharing their experiences of learning how to emerge from high school as future business leaders.

“DECA teaches high school and college students a variety of skills that are necessary to succeed in the workforce,” she said. “Many students find DECA to be an asset to not only the growth of their business knowledge but also their personal growth. DECA allows students to meet people all over the world with a common interest in business. Joining DECA has been a major influence not only in my live but in many others.”

The conference was attended by more than 20,000 other high school seniors, some of whom competed in contests to hone their skills in these industries, she said.

“We had people from the Dominican Republic to Canada to pretty much all the 50 states there,” Keyser said. “We had ‘DECA night’ at Disney in Anaheim, and it was just us DECA members there. They kicked everyone else out of the park.”

In addition to being a DECA state officer, Keyser is President of the National Beta Club for Vidalia High School and in past years was a member of the Dead Poet Society and Student Council. She was also elected to be a Senior Maid of the VHS Homecoming Court.

Keyser said part of her inspiration to join the Air Force comes from her brother Logan Keyser, a Marine who graduated in 2016 from Monterey High School.

Keyser said she also looks up to and admires her parents Ryan and April Keyser and her sister Aubrey, who has been like a third parent to her, she said.

Her former teachers in Algebra and World Economics Kwanza Cubie and Michael Roboski and DECA advisor Neashion Davis have been her biggest classroom role models, Keyser said.

When she isn’t at school or work, Keyser said she enjoys spending time with her family and her golden retriever Forrest Gump.