TJ's DECA team embarked on another journey to the state competition at the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs. courtesy of Matt Nicolo
Spartans return from DECA State, ready to prepare to be national competitors in the near future.
Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) state was hosted at the AAA Five-Diamond resort in Colorado Springs, at the Broadmoor, from February 24th to the 27th. Students spent three days at the resort exploring the atmosphere, while also preparing for the competition.
DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) is an international organization reaching eight countries. Founded in 1946 by Michael Wayne, the association of both high school and college students focuses on preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in multiple subcategories of business. These subcategories include marketing, finance, hospitality and management. With over 215,000 members, DECA continues to positively influence young adults in the field of business.
Thomas Jefferson High School had a successful year of preparation and competition, including success at the regional conference at Johnson and Wales University. TJ qualified more students for the state this year than they have in the last two years. Fourteen students attended state, competing in events including Principles of Marketing, Sports and Entertainment Marketing, Business Services Marketing, and many others. Advisor and marketing teacher Matthew Nicolo credits their successful performance to new resources, “The online testing site helped a ton. We purchased access to an online site that had DECA written tests available for practice, and we tried to take one test every other week leading up to Districts.”
Although it was a competitive path to state, students had to continue to work hard in order to prepare for the upcoming competition. With the most qualified competitors in each event, Spartans had to perform their best on both tests and role plays. The tests are timed, consisting of 100 multiple choice questions, and are used as a criteria to continue on to the ICDC (International Career Development Conference) conference. The roleplays are live situations that test students on their ability to come up with solutions in each competition. Junior Jake Kraus prepared for state by going to study sessions after school and role playing with other classmates who also made it to state. These study techniques paid off for senior Landon Cramer, who made it onto the finals at state, saying, “Attending state was an amazing opportunity, and I was honored to represent my school in the finals.”
Hopes were high that Spartans would perform as well in state as they did in regionals, and move on to the national stage. Nicolo had high expectations that with proper preparation, TJ would have had a national qualifier. “The ICDC is in Atlanta this year and it is an amazing trip. I was there in 2007 and we got to explore the Coca-Cola World headquarters, see the biggest Aquarium in the United States, explore Olympic Park, and basically hang out with 15,000 students from around the globe!” Nicolo said.
Unfortunately, TJ was unable to send any competitors to the ICDC conference this time, but hopefully DECA students will succeed in the upcoming years on their mission to make the national stage.
