DECA Does It Again

The DECA members compete through a testing and role-play situation and hope to make it to state.

Photo courtesy Matt Nicolo

On Friday December 14th 2012, Thomas Jefferson DECA competed in a District three DECA Leadership Conference, at Johnson and Wales University in Denver, and 13 TJ competitors made it to the State level. DECA advisor, Matt Nicolo, said that the students worked really hard and each of them deserved to move on to State, “This was a good year and were excited to see how state unfolded with these group of kids,” said Nicolo.

Thomas Jefferson competed against seven other schools: Arapahoe, Littleton, Heritage, Centarus, Denver West, Peak to Peak, and MLK Middle College. Over 300 students competed to qualify in the DECA State Leadership Conference. TJ had 52 competitors and 13 qualified for the next round. The following students are those going to the State Leadership Conference; Sabrina Winger, Nate Gengler, Stefany Najera, Nick Lednev, Tyler Moehlman, Ty Roder, Zack Robinson, Deja Trotman, Halen Alemseged, Corey Hernandez, and teams Ale Alas and Corey Aldrich, along with 25 other students who qualified as alternate in their event, which gives them the opportunity to compete in state if a qualifiers decides to not to go to state.

At DECA districts, students select a category in which they would like to compete. Categories range from accounting, to management. There are various categories like apparel and accessories, retail merchandising, and quick serve restaurant etc. There are also team categories where two people compete together in some of the same categories.

The DECA role-play test is composed of general marketing questions from all twelve DECA categories. A role-play is somewhat like acting, but students rely on previous knowledge to propose a solution to the problem. Each competitor at districts has two role-plays: one in the morning and one in the afternoon, whether team or individual. Students are given a scenario and five or six indicators, which they must answer. Students receive ten minutes to prepare their presentation for the judge. After the preparation time students go in front of a judge and present the resolution to their scenario for ten minutes, and finally the judge reserves five minutes to ask questions. “The test has to be the hardest part of competition and you have to do well to qualify, but other than that I really like the role-plays,” said Senior, Nate Gengler. “It was rewarding to participate in such a competitive event.”

To qualify and participate in the state competition, the students must receive one of the few top scores in their category. For example, in Retail Merchandising, their were 10 people competing and only the top three made it to the next round. Students are scored cumulatively on their test and their two role-plays. Each role-play and the test are worth 100 points each, meaning the highest possible score is 300 points. The three areas are then combined and the highest score advances from that section for each event.

The State Leadership Conference held annually at Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs will be February 23-26, costing the competitors about $350 each. “I went last year and it was definitely worth it.  I’m excited for this year,” said Senior Corey Aldrich.