On Feb. 28, 89 members of Freedom DECA went down to Virginia Beach to compete in Virginia DECA’s state conference.
Members can choose from more than 60 events in DECA. Those events are part of six career clusters: bntrepreneurship, finance, hospitality and tourism, marketing and personal financial literacy.
“It’s a great way to explore potential career paths in a fun and competitive environment,” said sophomore Maddy Tran.
Most events require a career cluster exam, which is based on the member’s event. It is 100 questions, and takes place a couple weeks before the competition.
The events can also be individual role play, team decision making roleplay or a written project.
Roleplays are when the student is given a case study relating to their event, and they have a set amount of time to prep and present their case. Individual competitors have 10 minutes to prep and 10 minutes to present, whereas teams have 30 minutes to prep and 15 minutes to present. Individual competitors usually have to do two roleplays at states while teams do one.
Written projects are more complex, requiring students to do a 10-20 page paper based on the event as well as a presentation. Some written events also require a career cluster exam.
The event included a welcoming ceremony by Virginia DECA’s state action team in the evening. Saturday was when members competed all day, followed by a mini-awards ceremony that night including top individual and team roleplay scores and test scores. One Sunday morning, there was a grand awards ceremony that announced all winners proceeding to ICDC, which is the international DECA conference.
Freedom High School brought home 18 ICDC bound members.
ICDC Qualifiers:
Aayush Kamdar, Pratheek Maiya, & Rohit Sundaresan – Business Solutions Project
Ainsleigh Wood & Madison Lowe – Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making
Aneesh Kandimalla – Entrepreneurship
Ashdeep Kaur & Deeksha Bahl – Business Services Operations Research
Ayush Jain & Raghav Raghunath – Integrated Marketing Campaign (Service)
Cassidy Heuser & Jordan Lowe – Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making
Isabelle Gonzaga & May Solomon – School Based Enterprise
Mahima Atmavilas – Project Management Career Development
Pragna Nidumolu & Sathwika Vummadi – Project Management Financial Literacy
Vidhur Shankar – Integrated Marketing Campaign (Service)
The Perch was gold re-certified. Laurie Rominski also won the Outstanding Advisor Award for the second year in a row.
