DECA Headed to State

Sixteen of Thomas Jefferson’s DECA Students are on the road to state. 

Photo by Kiera Classen

On Tuesday, December 6^th Thomas Jefferson High School’s DECA Chapter participated in the District 13 Leadership conference; the Spartans walked away with sixteen state qualifiers out of forty-four TJ participants. Matthew Nicolo, the DECA advisor at TJ, said, “Our students performed right on par for where we should be. We had a good mix of first timers and veterans that qualified for state. It will be interesting to see how these students perform at the state level.”

Some of the schools that competed in this competition are: Arapahoe, Gateway, Grandview, Heritage, Hinkley, Littleton, Martin Luther King Jr. Early College, Overland, Rangeview, West, and Thomas Jefferson High Schools.

TJ has three different DECA classes: the first year class, Marketing; the second year class, Algebraic Principals of Marketing; and the third year class, School Store. Every year Nicolo requests that students from each class take part in district competition, which is a choice for students but is recommended by Nicolo if they want to excel in the business field.

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

To receive the honor to qualify and participate in state competition the students must receive one of the few top scores in their category. For example, the category of Marketing Management had seven competitors district-wide, but only the top four scorers qualify for state. 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 DECA 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.

This year DECA districts were held on December 6^th at the Doubletree Hotel in the Denver Tech Center. In previous years this district competition has been held at Johnson and Wales and the Brown Palace. The state competition is held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs every year.

The state competition is three days in length it is held at the end of February the 25^th-28^th. At the state competition students also have to take a test and perform two role-plays. But the last day of the state competition students get to participate in a social dance. Tyler Bybee said, “The dance is the best part of the whole competition. It is the part of the competition that we all get to relax because we know it is over.”

Danny Showers, the Thomas Jefferson High School Career and Technology Resource Specialist stated, “All the state qualifiers worked exceptionally hard to attain this tremendous honor. They each displayed great character, class, and integrity to reach this goal.”

State Qualifiers: