Students in the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) club participated in the District Career Development Conference from Thursday, Dec. 3 to Saturday, Dec. 5. Unlike other years, this year, the competition was completely virtual. Students were able to record themselves for their event and submit it for judging alongside any other materials needed for their events.

“This was my first year on DECA so I don’t really know what I’m missing,” Jerry Deblois ‘23 said. “I’ve heard about how fun competitions can be so it’s a bummer I can’t actually be there.” 

This year brought many changes for DECA. For one, the district competition usually composed of students presenting themselves in front of a judge was changed to a video recording. Additionally, students competing in role-play events were able to find their prompts up to two days ahead of time, unlike the usual setting where students receive their prompts minutes before presenting their proposal. Also, students participating in the written test categories were given the opportunity to use any notes or guides to help them. However, instead of receiving all of the questions at a given time, questions were received one by one and participants were unable to look back over the submitted questions.

“I participated in a role-play event this year,” Sunny Dandapantula ‘22 said. “I feel like the competition was a lot more lenient since we got our topics days before our event was due. There was also a lot of leeway for students who uploaded something wrong or had the wrong title.”

Results for state qualifiers were announced on Wednesday, Jan. 13. This year, 149 groups advanced to State. The next competition will be the State Career Development Conference on Thursday, Jan. 28 to Friday, Jan. 29 and will be held virtually.