DECA Members Prepare for Competition at DECA Day

Rifah Mirza and Chloe Oakley| December 2, 2022

  • Alex Kim ‘23 monitors time in mock roleplay events as members prepare to present in front of a judge. Officers were assigned to supervise participants in DECA Day before their mock competition- an attempt to give members an idea of how a real competition will operate.

    Hannah Ashtari
    '

  • To gain preparation for the upcoming District competition, Arihant Sen ’25 takes a practice exam on marketing. DECA exams evaluate members on subjects such as marketing, management, law, and accounting.

    Hannah Ashtari
    '

  • Following their mock competition, Nilan Nathan ’25, James Li ’25, Aayush Kumar ’25, and Ryan Lee ’25 socialize. DECA members felt intense relief once the stress of the competition had ended.

    Hannah Ashtari
    '

  • In a mock roleplay competition, Shobisri Suthakar ’24 and Siona Shah ’24 present before a judge for a given prompt. In roleplay events, members were given 30 minutes to apply their knowledge of business responding to the fictional dilemma presented.

    Hannah Ashtari
    '
Navigate Left
Navigate Right

On Saturday, Nov. 12, DECA(Distributive Education Clubs of America) hosted DECA Day, an immersive opportunity for students in the club to gain experience and practice for future competitions.

Students were able to participate in practice tests as well as rehearse role play events, simulating the environment of competition. In addition, a former DECA club member visited to share tips on how to excel in DECA written events.

“DECA day is a great way for students to prepare for their competitions,” DECA Operational Representative Romir Jain ‘25 said. “It provides a lot of opportunities for [club members] to get feedback and advice, especially for [members] that are new, so that way [they] don’t make [their] first mistakes at the real competition.”

The success of DECA day is a credit to the tireless efforts of the officer team. Officers had to ensure that all tests and event materials were prepared, as well as find parent-volunteers and colleagues of Mr. Siler to work as judges and guest speakers. Lastly, officers had to set up the cafeteria and library accordingly.

“It took a couple months to get everything together,” Siyona Shah ‘24 said.

However, DECA day only offers practice for two types of events: testing, and role-plays. To address this issue, Parent Relations Director Avyay Gupta ‘24 implemented a new program called PACs (Professional Advisory Conference) for members who participate in written events.

“Written event teams don’t get [the] kind of preparation that they need, especially for State and ICDC,” Gupta said. “I felt that implementing that kind of preparation for them could really help them make it past state and succeed at ICDC.”

PACs will operate similarly to DECA day; teams in written events will stay after school twice a week during the two weeks before State and ICDC competitions to present their speeches in front of a parent-volunteer judge and receive constructive feedback.

“I think it will level the playing ground since those in role-play and testing events get practice but those in written don’t,” Michelle Huang ‘25 said. “I think that it will be a great way to make mistakes and learn from them before the actual competition.”

DECA day marked the beginning of DECA’s competition season, with members in the organization looking forward to the memories ahead.

“DECA has been a life changing experience for me,” Rohan Satija ‘25 said. “It has taught me so much about business and leadership skills, as well as teamwork, and impacted me greatly.”