DECA Variety Show a huge success

The annual DECA Variety Show this year proved to be a hit, with eight performances that left the audience laughing, shouting in approval, and smiling all the way through.

DECA is the organization on campus that prepares students for business and marketing ventures in the future.  It put up the show this year as “a fundraising event for future trips to state and national conferences,” explained junior Victor Hernandez-Vega, Northern California vice president of DECA. “We have a lot,” he added.

Fortunately, a fair number of tickets were sold and the viewers were intrigued by each performance.
Senior Jasmine Mangabay, who sang a cover of “Fix You” by Coldplay, said it was her second year performing in the variety show.

“Last year I was a bit nervous, but it was a learning experience. I have improved a lot,” she said.

Senior Marla Bradford, who sang duet covers of “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5 and “Thinking About You” by Frank Ocean with senior Taji Mekki and guitarist junior Alvin Lin, loved the experience of singing on stage.

“I already performed in Pops, so I decided to try out this year. I wish I had done it last year, too,” said Bradford.

Judge junior Eunice Jung, teacher Jo Sutton, and guest Shelbi Doyeto all were able to sense the passion flowing from each performer.

“It’s so cool watching everyone I see in the halls at school express themselves this way, doing the things they love,” Jung stated.

Sutton was especially excited at the variety this year, considering she hadn’t judged since ten years ago.

“The kids are great, and you can just see how well-prepared they are. They put so much passion into this, and I really like doing this,” said Sutton.

Doyeto, a friend of Sutton’s, came all the way from North Carolina to be pleasantly surprised to spontaneously find herself a judge. Having judged shows in the past, she found the DECA show to be a familiar yet exciting task.

“It’ll be really hard to pick from all these choices,” she said, “but I know what to look for, and it’s passion.”

The specific categories that were graded on a scale of one to five, with the latter being the highest, included preparedness, creativity, spirit, and stage usage. The overall performance was ranked out of ten. When the show ended, dance group Urbanize proved successful once again, surpassing the judges’ expectations and winning for the third year in a row.

“Going into this, no one ever spoke of or had their minds set on winning. Our main goal was to share and showcase to everyone what we love to do, ” said junior Tammi Ramos, part of the winning ensemble. “Our love for dance is what brought us together and is what I think won us the recognition.”

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