DECA members gathered for a breakfast to induct new officers for next year.
New DECA officers for the 2012-2013 chapter. Photo courtesy DECA.
On April 17, 2012 from eight to ten in the morning, Mt. Vernon Country Club was the host of 110 DECA members. The group was treated to a buffet style breakfast. “The breakfast was amazing and the perfect way to bring in the new officers. The team of officers looks really good and I wish them luck next year,” said DECA Vice President Daniela Cardona.
What exactly is DECA? It is a program that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management in high schools and colleges. DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America and is offered at Thomas Jefferson High School for all grades.
Before being able to announce the new officers, the students had to go through an interview process. There were eight different categories by which the students were graded, and the teacher and present DECA officers evaluated them. “I graded them on a scale of zero to fifty and the officers graded them on a scale of one to ten. Their professional dress was one thing they were graded on and the highest was a fifty. They needed two letters of recommendation, ten points each. We also looked at their unweighted GPA and mulitplied that by ten. Attendance is very important because we deducted one point for every absence. If the students sold tubs of cookie dough for our fundraiser, they got five extra points for each one sold. I also looked at their grade in my class and multiplied that by five. The last category was if they went to District/State Competitions and they got fifty or one hundred extra points,” explained Business Teacher Matt Nicolo.
After calculating the scores, the new officers were appointed. Next year’s DECA President is Deja Trotman, Vice President is Quinton Riesnman, Secretary is Tyler Moehlman, Treasurer is Jeremy Albright, Publicity is Halen Alemseged, School Store is Corey Aldrich and Ale Alas, Travel is Corey Hernandez, and Chapter Representative is Josh Neuhart. Having two school store officers is new for next year and was just decided on May 2, 2012. “Ale Alas is a recent addition and the officers decided it would be more efficient to have two running the store. I think this group of officers is going to be great, how could it not be?” said DECA Advisor, Danny Showers.
At the breakfast, all of these students became aware of their new positions. The students were given their titles in front of some very important people as well. “We had seventeen VIP’s, people who helped the club or advisors. Benard McCune, DECA Director of Career and Technology Education of Public Schools, was in attendance. Ev Vaughan, DECA State Advisor, also attended the buffet,” said Nicolo.
This year Nicolo and Showers tried something they haven’t done in awhile. They gave the students a chance to choose which positions they wanted so it would ensure they would work hard when in the position, because they really wanted it. “We made it very democratic, where they got to vote and choose which positions they wanted to try for. In the past years we just picked the positions so this was very true to our roots,” commented Nicolo.
“After seeing the new team, I think that they have a lot of potential. I think that they will bring a lot of new things to the chapter but they have some big shoes to fill,” said DECA President April Regas.
