On Saturday, Jan. 28, Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) members gathered at Cedar Ridge High School for DECA Districts. The conference began with opening remarks by the District 5 DECA Officers, before a brief introduction of the events planned for the day. Competitors were then released to prepare and participate in their imminent competitions. Following competitions and lunch, members once again gathered, as awards were given out to those who qualified for State. With 251 qualifiers going to DECA State, Westwood DECA had the most members competition at state, making it the number one chapter in District 5. 

Below is a list of students who advanced: 

Apparel & Accessories Marketing: Maggie Fan ‘23

Accounting Applications: Benjamin Bryant ‘24, Dhiyaan Nirmal ‘25, Yuejia Yeong ‘26, Victor Lehr ‘26, Vedaant Bhat ‘23, Yuyan Chen ‘26

Automotive Services Marketing: Ishan Kartha ‘24, Andrew Seo ‘23, Rishabh Gulecha ‘24

Business Finance: Arjun Ankad ‘24, Neha Reddy ‘26, Samanvita Padarthi ‘26

Business Law & Ethics Team Decision Making: David Li ‘24, Ayush Deo Tripathi ‘24, Pranav Balakrishnan ‘25, Akaash Reddy ‘25, Loy Bhowmick ‘25, Neev Gupta ‘25, Afnan Hossain ‘24, Kaushik Nagarajan ‘24, Ethan Andrew ‘26, Rayan Dange ‘26

Buying and Merchandising Operations Research: Camila Carrillo ‘25, Lily Yang ‘25, Sophia He ‘24, Zackery Huang ‘25, Steven Ma ‘25, Sandali Gangwar ‘26, Shubhankari Sinha ‘26

Business Services Operation Research Event: Neeti Ingle ‘24, Ayushi Merchant ‘24, Albert Sun ‘24, Blake Zhang ‘24

Business Services Marketing Series: Aarohi Bhattacharya ‘25, Arihant Sen ‘25, Srinithi Arumugam ‘24, Visshwa Balasubramanian ‘25, Winston Zhang ‘24

Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making: Tarun Kallur ‘25, Shaurya Pathania ‘25, Zubin Chhabra ‘23, James Li ‘23, Jake Bialek ‘23, William Ruan ‘23, Aarnav Chitari ‘24, Peter Kim ‘24, Prince Kumar ‘25, Sidhant Sen ‘25, Suchir Kumar ‘25, Daniel Nam ‘25

Business Growth Plan: Harish Kolli ‘23

Franchise Business Plan: Kavita Kohli ‘23, Aria Merchant ‘23, Riya Shah ‘23, Ariel Sun ‘23, Olivia Yang ‘23, Allen Garcia ‘23, Grace Joh ‘23, Jessamine Qu ‘23, David Lee ‘23, Brian Nam ‘23, Wesley Yeung ‘23

Independent Business Plan: Sanjit Sathish ‘23, Arjun Bhardwaj ‘25, Aarvin Hirode ‘25, Samarth Margasahayam ‘25, Jhanvi Giri ‘24

Entrepreneurship Series: Druhinh Roy ‘24. Eileen Wu ‘26, Jadon Lee ‘24, Harshadha Chaganti ‘25

Start Up Business Plan: Netta Blinchevsky ‘23, Angela Ruan ‘23, Caroline Zhuang ‘23, Grace Huh ‘25, Marlene Luo ‘25, Eshaan Chopra ‘23, Aanika Hirode ‘23, Gabriel Paredes ‘23

Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making: Ishan Dasgupta ‘23, Warren Huang ‘23, Raghav Aggarwal ‘24, Mahin Naveen ‘24

Financial Consulting Event: Sevya Agarwal ‘25, Sahiti Oruganti ‘25

Food Marketing Series: Shreya Ganti ‘23, Sandy Trang ‘23, Pramod Venkoba Rao, Sibi Raja ‘25, Rewa Chauhan ‘23

Financial Services Team Decision Making: Aarav Mahesh ‘24, Akhilesh Rao Pissay Bharath ‘24, Bhargav Gadi ‘23, Aryan Harkawat ‘24, Pranav Katragadd ‘23, Isaac Wang ‘23, Anvith Maddipoti ‘24, Ethan Tang ‘24, Paras Nijhawan ‘24, Kate Ren ‘24, Akshay Gaitonde ‘23, Reet Sinha ‘24, Ananya Chiluveru ‘24, Mehek Patro ‘24

Hotel and Lodging Management Series: Vivaan Shah ‘24, Medha Katragadda ‘25, Ayden Fisher ‘24, Ishan Sharma ‘24

Human Resources Management Series: Ryan Wang ‘24, Shubhangi Bhattacharya ‘24, William Hwang ‘24, Mindy Young ‘23

Hospitality Services Team Decision Making: Lasya Adivi ‘23, Anya Yaksh ‘23, Brandee Benson ‘24, Ian Shone ‘25, Ganesh Kumarappan ‘23, Prakrit Sinha ‘23, Daniel Choy ‘24, Kavin Thiyagarajan ‘24, Vince Pham ‘25, Rohan Satija ‘25

Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research: Shivani Kondubhatla ‘25, Shrishti Mahajan ‘25, Yujie Zhang ’25, Venthan Dinesh ’23, Justin Gao ‘23

Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling Event: Varshini Loganathan ‘24

International Business Plan: Joyce Shen ’23, Grace Zhu ’23, Vijay Dagupati ’23, Arsh Gupta ’23, Ashna Karthik ‘25, Rifah Mirza ‘25, Talia Philip ‘25, Tanvi Kadiri ‘25, Ananya Swaminathan ’25

Integrated Marketing Campaign(Event): Arunima Das ‘23, Aakanksha Mahajan ‘23

Integrated Marketing Campaign(Product): Bhumi Anil ‘24, Srikrithi Pallemoni ’25, Aarav Pulsani ’25, James Li ’25, Avery Hixson ‘23, Jordan Montgomery ’23, Shivali Sahu ’26

Integrated Marketing Campaign(Service): Avishka Boina ‘26, Aarya Kale ‘26, Nikhil Devaraj ‘26, Jonah Malinger ‘23, Vishnu Sreenivasan ‘23

Marketing Communications Series: Alexander Bui ‘24, Sharanya Gupta ’23, Satvik Agarwal ’24, Jo-Hsuan Wei ‘26

Marketing Management Team Decision Making: Romir Jain ‘25, Adam Menezes ‘25, Sofia Aguilar ‘24, Veronica Nguyen ‘24, Sanjay Balasubramanian ‘24, Kavin Poovannan ‘24, Sanika Purohit ’24, Rhea Ramaiah ’24 

Principles of Business Management and Administration: Aiden Wen ‘26, Uma Sthanu ‘26, Arnav Maskey ‘26, Howell Wu ‘26

Personal Financial Literacy Event: Siyona Jain ‘24, Shrey Birmiwal ‘25, Mayank Gulecha ‘23

Principles of Finance: Sravya Akella ‘26, Anamitra Ghosh ‘26, Savya Bhat ‘26, Shruthi Srikanth ‘25

Principles of Hospitality and Tourism:

Josephine Sun ’26, Arnav Chinnappareddy ‘26, Sonal Kumari ’24

Project Management Business Solutions: Sophie Liu ’25, Isabella Shi ’25, Aamir Kutianawala ‘24, Alexander Lee ‘24, Rochela Sjariffudin ‘24, Vasantha Eedara ’24, Diana Zewdie ’24

Project Management Community Awareness: Ashwin Harirama ‘24, Sheevani Talati ‘24, Shrivetha Senthil ‘24, Amy Simon ‘23

Project Management Career Development: Sri Harshitha Bhumireddy ‘23, Shrika Paramasivam ‘23, Natalie Holmes ’25, Dawoon Jung ‘25, Amogh Badrayani ‘25, Vinay Reddy ‘25, Zachary Stenglein ‘25  

Community Giving Project: Anika Aslesh ‘26, Sanjana Aslesh ‘26, Dhiya Balajee ‘26, Shreya Dawady ‘23, Srihasa Penchikala ‘23 , Sritha Yalamanchili ‘23, Anahita Kaur ‘24, Shriya Kota ‘24, Renitha Ramesh ‘24, Krish Arora ‘25, Arya Kumar ‘23, Ishaan Sharma ‘23

Financial Literacy Project: Hannah Lee ‘23, Brooke Xu ‘24, Valerie Zhang ‘24, Avyay Gupta ‘24, Siona Shah ‘24, Sobhisri Suthakar ’24

Principles of Marketing: Charlie Hui ‘26, Ayan Malpani ‘26, Ryan Gu ‘26

Sales Project: Rishitha Balla ‘25

Professional Selling: Sriya Tanguturi ‘25

Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series: Manika Aggarwal ’23, Kevin Yu ‘23, Sydney Yeung ‘24, Akshith Mandapati ‘25

Restaurant and Food Management Series: Torrence Shores ‘23, Aryan Punalekar ‘24, Mehul Rathi ‘26

Retail Merchandising Series: Nitin Akella ‘23

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series: Rishi Ballada ‘24, Arjun Rajan ‘25

Sports and Entertainment Market Operations Research: Zaina Jafri ‘23, Jia-Yu Lin ‘23, Juhi Malwade ‘23, Aryan Bandi ‘25, Prithvi Krishnan ‘23, Anvay Todkar ‘25

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Aadet Samant ‘23, Sutej Tapdiya ‘23, Arnesh Chatterjee ‘26, Om Kalyani ‘26, Aditi Dalal ‘23, Neethi Karnam ‘23, Hibah Ahmed ‘24, Lorenzo Widyaratne ‘23, Aubrey Phu ‘25, Giada Scaramuzza ‘25

Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making: Mannat Ahluwalia ‘24, Aanchal Save ‘24, Kevin Han ‘23, Ashish Jacob ‘23, John Chubick ‘25, Ryan Linton ‘25