Central’s DECA chapter traveled to Lincoln over spring break to compete in the Nebraska DECA Career Development Conference.
This year, 15 students in Central’s DECA chapter, made up of students in marketing and business classes, received top eight recognition. Ten students qualified for nationals, and two of those double-qualified. Dilan Aguirre-Valez and Joel Salvador-Huerta took first place in integrated marketing campaign-product, and Hafsa Osman took first place in principles of marketing.
Second place was received by Scarlet Losole and Brody Losole in integrated marketing campaign-project, Isabella Johnson in human resource management, and Desiree Steffen in retail food service management.
Third place was received by Madalynne George in business services management. The additional national qualifiers are Ewan Jones in food marketing services, Christian Steinbaugh in the marketing communications series, and Scarlet Losole and Brody Losole in business law and ethics team decision making.
The DECA competition is a two-part process, one being the written test that is 100 questions in 60 minutes and the other in-person competition where they took part in role plays or submitted a year-long written project.
Students can choose to compete in any of the 27 different role-play options. In addition to their role plays, they could also take the chance to opt in to compete in any of the 23 different written project options. Throughout the year, students can compete in online competitions or challenges to help them qualify for the International Career Development Conference, which takes place on April 27 – May 1 in Anaheim, California.
The qualification needed to compete at state is to be a member of DECA, but the Central DECA chapter does it differently. Central DECA makes a requirement to compete in one of the two prior competitions before they can compete in state to ensure that they have some experience and are prepared before the stakes are higher. This allowed Central to take about 32 students, or 75% of its chapter, this year.
Many preparations take place before the competition, and students who compete in state will take time to do a lot of studying practice, mock role plays in different areas, and memorizing speeches.
“Central specifically hosts different study sessions, print off practice tests for us to complete, and they grade, which tells us the things that we got wrong, and we study those,” George said.
The environment at state fluctuates between competitive and business like but is also very fun. The competition takes place throughout the first day, and that night, there is a dance “like homecoming but without the formality,” marketing teacher Micheala Kavanagh said. Many students consider this their favorite part of state because “it takes away some of the nerves from the first day and allows us to relax and have fun with our friends,” senior Miroslava Sredl said.
Throughout the year leading up to state, Central DECA has meetings and is preparing for the spring when state and internationals take place. “We’re all really close and have become best friends,” George said. “No matter what happens, we can talk to them and be with them.”
Many students who join are searching for a future in marketing or business.
“I originally joined for business but since then have changed my anticipated major,” Sredl said. “I heard that DECA was a lot of fun.”
