Despite being a first-year club, DECA experienced enormous success at the district championship Jan. 25 against many other schools from Ohio.

“We took 35 students and we had 18 qualify for states,” said Ms. Seibold, the DECA advisor. “We were shocked at how well we did.”

Students competed in four different categories about the financial world including Business Management and Administration, Finance, Hospitality and Tourism and Marketing. Each of these categories has several different events within it with different types of competition such as improvised day-of presentations or engaging tests.

Max Haley, a junior and the Vice President of Community Engagement in DECA, competed in the Sports and Entertainment Marketing event at districts. In this event, students receive a case study about their topic and must come up with a proposal in 15 minutes which they then present to the judges.

“Most people went into the competition nervous but once you compete, people realize how easy and fun it really is,” Haley said. 

Junio Emma Reding, a member of the DECA social media team, recently competed in the Marketing Communications event where she took a test and then presented a solution to a proposed scenario. At districts, she was tasked with creating a marketing solution to increase voter turnout for 18-25-year-olds.

“I like the competitive aspect of competition against other schools and trying to come up with the most creative but professional solutions to our case studies,” Reding said.

Both Max and Emma will be moving on to the state competition in Columbus, Mar. 10-11. 

The path to states was not easy for this club, however.  Many of the schools they competed against have bigger teams and more experience.

“This was definitely a big goal and our first year we killed it,” said Seibold.

DECA is more than just a club about economics. In October, members had the opportunity to attend a Columbus Blue Jackets Game, and a few weeks later in November, they experienced a Cav’s basketball game in Cleveland. The organization has “bonded a lot of grades” and resulted in friendships that usually would not exist, according to Ms. Seibold. 

The club is eager to add new members next year. There will be an informational meeting at the end of March for interested students. The only requirement to join is students must be enrolled in a business course for that school year.