Twenty TJ students traveled to the Broadmoor Hotel for the 2011 State Leadership Development Conference.
Photo courtesy of Matt Nicolo
On February 26th, twenty students from the TJ DECA Chapter competed in the 64th annual State Leadership Development Conference at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, in which two TJ students received an honorable mention.
The State conference has been held at the Broadmoor for the past 47 years, and is a three-day conference in which competitors participate in their specific events. The first day of the conference held a written test that each competitor had one hour to complete. Following the test was an opening ceremony welcoming all of the schools and motivating participants to do well in their role-plays the following day.
On Monday, competitors had to take part in two role-plays (a role-play is when a competitor is given an on-the-spot business situation that they must prepare and present to their specified judges). Competitors were given twenty minutes to read and prepare for their assigned role-plays, and were then sent to their judges to present their ideas. “The role-plays are always the most nerve-racking part of competing. You never know what situation you’re going to be put in, so you always have to be ready for anything,” said State Competitor Casey Edelman.
The final day of the conference held the “Mini Awards,” in which competitors who did well enough on both their test and role-plays were called up to the stage to find out if they could move on to the next and final round of the state competition. Competitors who qualified for the next round had to participate in a third role-play later on in the day to see if they qualified for the national competition in April. Deja Trotman in Apparel and Accessories and Justin VanNostrand in Retail Merchandising each made it to stage and were given Honorable Mention, both finishing in the top three of their respective sections. “It felt great to receive an honorable mention for Retail Merchandising. Although I didn’t qualify for the next round of role-plays, it was nice being recognized for my hard work,” said VanNostrand.
“Once again the Broadmoor staff was very impressed with our students’ professional attitude and attire. I am very proud of our students’ behavior and class while attending the conference; it really does make me proud to be a Spartan!” said DECA Advisor Matt Nicolo.
Although no students from TJ qualified for nationals, all of the competitors managed to walk away with even more knowledge about the business world. “It was a great opportunity for our students to compete and represent the community of Denver in a professional manner,” said Nicolo.
