11 Thomas Jefferson DECA students compete at Colorado Springs in hopes of making it to the national level.
Thomas Jefferson High School DECA competed in state with high hopes. Photo from Matt Nicolo
On Saturday February 24th, our very own Thomas Jefferson state DECA qualifiers packed their bags and went to a world-renowned five star hotel, The Broadmoor, in Colorado Springs to compete in the annual DECA State Leadership Conference in hopes of making it into the annual International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, California in April 24-24.
This year, advisors Matt Nicolo and Danny Showers took a total of 11 students, Ale Alas, Corey Aldrich, Deja Trotman, Corey Hernandez, Halen Alemseged, Nancy Enriquez, Zach Robinson, Lestat Turner, Ty Roder, Sabrina Winger, and Tyler Moehlman. This year’s competition was at its all time highest, as the qualifiers competed against 2,500 other members from over 50 schools. The qualifiers competed in two role-plays and a test in hopes of making it on stage to compete in the final round to qualify for the International conference. A role-play is a scenario about the business category the qualifiers are in. The students prep are to present to the judges the solution of the problem, and wish for the best after that.
The state trip is divided into four days so everyone has something to do on a certain day. On the first Day, Saturday, the qualifiers had a fun time as they went bowling at the Air Force and had dinner, as well. “The pizza at the air force was the best part of my four day trip. I loved the food; it was really nice to go bowling before the competition,” said senior and second-time state competitor, Tyler Moehlman. The second day was the big test day for everybody; this test predicted the fate for most of these qualifiers, other than role plays, determining if the qualifiers go on to the next round. “The test was not that bad, it was the basic business questions, that were pretty obvious to answer,” added Moehlman.
The third day was the last day in completion for the qualifiers; it was the big day to do two role-plays one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Also, students are required to participate in two workshops. This years keynote speaker, Matt Shoup, an entrepreneur, who founded a painting company with only 100 dollars and turned it into a muti-million dollar company, had a workshop for seniors and how to get funding for college. “The workshops were very informative and helpful,” said Senior Ty Roder.
On the fourth and final day, the competitors found out if they were finalist for the International Conference. First year DECA student, Sabrina Winger, qualified for finals in the Accounting Sevices event. “I didn’t think I was going to be top 10 in the state in my event, and it felt good” said Winger. Although she didn’t make it to nationals, she will be attending ICDC alongside Junior, Joshua Neuhart, to attend the Capter Management academy, a program that is designed to help future officers. “This is a development to make TJ better, and learn form the best that will be their teaching,” said Nicolo.
Another proud TJ DECA moment occurred in the opening ceremonies Sunday evening, the TJ DECA Chapter was honored on stage for being the chapter that raised the most money in District 3 during the “Miracle Minute” at our district conference in December. In all, Colorado DECA raised just over $22,000 for Project Mercy, which is funded by the Cunningham Foundation. “Every year we go up to state I notice how classy TJ always is and it really makes me proud, we did a great job this year and I’m very excited for the international conference to help our TJ DECA next year,” said NIcolo.
