DECA Wins Big at State Leadership Conference
By: Tillie Davies and Kristy Kocot
Distributive Education Club of America (DECA) is an organization that prepares students for careers and education in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service. The students in DECA specialize in these categories and show their knowledge of this specific field at competitions. The individuals compete within their category by taking an exam and participating in a role-play, which are ways of presenting their skills in front of a judge.
The State Leadership Conference (SLC) is a competition where the T.C. DECA students competed against other schools at the state level. The students who won awards in their categories will move onto the National Competition. At Nationals, T.C. DECA students will be competing against other schools from around the United States. The National Competition will take place in Atlanta, GA, on April 21.
The weekend of March 2, the DECA team competed in the SLC held in Virginia Beach, VA. Almost 4,000 students competed, and nineteen T.C. students earned awards at the competition. This is the best that T.C. DECA has ever done at the SLC.
Senior Molly Schulwolf and Senior Bryce Cook were first place team winners. “I had a great experience at SLC. I love meeting new people who are interested in the same things as me,” said Schulwolf. “Getting called up on stage is the greatest feeling.” Schulwolf and Cook will prepare for Nationals by doing practice tests and rehearsing their roleplay.
The DECA students celebrating their victories. Photo by Ms. McCormick.
Sophomore Malcolm Kerr won in the Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan category, and will continue to Nationals. “States was a lot of fun. It was really cool on the DECA side of things because I got to compete against so many people and really work on my presentation and business skills,” said Kerr. “It was also fun meeting and getting to know people from high schools all around the state, and even getting to know people at TC that I’d never met.”
Senior Sophie Johnson, Senior Charlie Wixson, Senior Saul Osorio, Senior Carlos Villarroel, and Junior Muhammad Ali, all of whom were state finalists, will also move on to Nationals. Wixson competed in the Financial Advising Event and placed in the top ten. “My experience at SLC was amazing. I was able to meet people from around the state, bond with my friends, and compete,” said Wixson. “To prepare for Nationals I am taking practice finance tests and perfecting my presentation.”
The School Store Management team of Senior Molly Smith, Senior Meg Schaedal, and Junior Monica Perez won in their categories as well. “It was a great experience, as the manager of the school store, we met a bunch of other students from around Virginia with their school stores,” said Smith, “We were in a School Based Enterprise Academy (which incorporates a business into the school environment) and we got a bunch of great ideas.” The School Store Management team will be working on the timing of their competition presentation to prepare for Nationals.
The team of Junior Piper Bucholz and Junior Nahum Gojela will move on to Nationals with the rest of the state finalists. Bucholz said, “My experience was great and the competition had a really good energy.” Gojela said, “SLC is definitely something I will remember for a long time.”