Bustling across Hilton Anatole’s Convention Center in business attire and with sales pitches prepared, 252 students representing Westwood competed at the Distributive Education Careers of America (DECA) State Career Development Conference (SCDC) from Thursday, March 6 to Saturday, March 8. Standing out amongst over 7,500 competitors at the conference, 75 Warriors advanced to the next stage, and will head to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). 

The three-day conference allowed members to compete and network with students across the state. On the operational side, officers and chaperones coordinated transportation and room assignments.

“As the largest chapter at [SCDC], with over 250 members, I’m extremely thankful for everyone’s collaboration and cooperation among the officers, students, and the adults to run the conference as smoothly as possible,” President Aiden Wen ’26 said.  

While over 50 students qualified for ICDC in their traditional competitive events, this year brought record achievements in virtual events as well: 15 members will be competing in Virtual Business Challenge or the Stock Market Game. Virtual events involve students running simulations in various career clusters — from personal finance to fashion.  

“I saw everyone working hard and running the simulation over and over again, trying to bring their best to these virtual challenges,” Wen said. “I am excited to see these 15 members compete live at ICDC.” 

The freshmen in particular excelled in their competition, with 11 qualifying to compete at the international level. Students like Apple Ma ’28 began preparing for competition as early as November, taking almost every practice test offered and practicing role plays, which is a class of competitive events. 

“I am proud of the work I put in, and I wouldn’t have prepared any other way,” Ma said. “No matter what, it’s important to have fun while competing and to prepare to the best of your ability.”

Carrying on the leadership-oriented legacy of Westwood DECA, Josephine Sun ’26 was elected as one of the State Vice Presidents of Texas DECA, succeeding former State Vice President Shivani Kondubhatla ’25. Leading over 25,000 members, Sun hopes to create more equitable competition resources and foster community connections. With Arnav Maskey ’26 serving as the District 5 Vice President and Sun now leading the state, representation in leadership like this at Westwood’s DECA chapter has been unseen.

“I’m excited to work behind-the-scenes as [a state officer], especially for ICDC,” Sun said. “The last time we went to Orlando, I was a freshman — it feels full circle.” 

The following students will compete at ICDC in Orlando, Florida from April 26-29: 

Principles of Business Management and Administration: Apple Ma ’28 

Principles of Entrepreneurship: Ava Stidvent ’28 

Principles of Finance: Nithin Reddy Vemula ’28, Catherine Zheng ’28 

Principles of Marketing: Mia Shetty ’28 

Accounting Applications Series: Adarsh Rajesh ’25, Ryan Lee ’25 

Hotel and Lodging Management Series: Krish Shenoy ’27, Josephine Sun ’26, Medha Katragadda ’25

Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series: Jatin Aggarwal ’26

Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making: Brijnandan Saranu ’27, Joshua Boersema ’27 

Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making: Rutu Ruparel ’25, Mishree Narasaiah ’25

Hospitality & Tourism Team Decision Making: Reett Aulakh ’28, Aanya Pathak ’28 

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Sidhant Sen ’25, Prince Kumar ’25 

Financial Consulting: Saisha Siram ’26

Professional Selling: Diya Shakkottai ’27, Uma Sthanu ’26 

Integrated Marketing Campaign Product: Shivali Sahu ’26 

Integrated Marketing Campaign Service: Sophia Ng ’26, Parmida Jamali ’26, Aarya Kale ’26, Avishka Boina ’26

Career Development Project: Dawoon Jung ’25, Chloe Oakley ’25, Isabella Shi ’25, Arjun Bhardwaj ’25, Aarvin Hirode ’25, Samarth Margasahayam ’25, Aryan Sehgal ’26 

Community Giving Project: Ashka Rajbhandari ’28, Lucinda McWilliams ’28

Financial Literacy Project: Talia Philip ’25, Cheyenne Wang ’25

Business Services Operations Research: Aiden Wen ’26

Hospitality & Tourism Operations Research: Shivani Kondubhatla ’25, Shrishti Mahajan ’25, Yujie Zhang ’25 

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research: Camila Carrillo ’25, Shuyu Lai ’25, Sophie Liu ’25, Maya Rajan ’28, Alexandra Oancea ’27 

Franchise Business Plan: Romita Sur ’27, Rounav Sur ’27, Allison Zhuang ’27

Innovation Plan: Lakshay Batra ’26, Anish Bhat ’25 

International Business Plan: Vandya Agarwal ’28 

Start-up Business Plan: Anika Aslesh ’26, Sanjana Aslesh ’26, Dhiya Balajee ’26 

Stock Market Game: Shreyan Khanna ’27, Ruhan Gupta ’27, Victor Lehr ’26, Zuhair Amin ’26, Alexis Correia ’26, Levi Kim ’27, Sahil Jain ’27 

Virtual Business Challenge – Accounting: Dhiyaan Nirmal ’25, Shaurya Pathania ’25, Shrey Birmiwal ’25 

Virtual Business Challenge – Personal Finance: Neev Gupta ’25, Loy Bhowmick ’25, Visshwa Balasubramanian ’25 

Virtual Business Challenge – Restaurant: Phoenix Mielcarek ’25, Anvay Todkar ’25