DECA dominates at NorCal

Imagine a whole weekend of tough business competitions—taking a 100 question test, role playing in situations on the spot, giving presentations, doing write ups—all based on your knowledge of marketing. 

In a tough weekend of overnight competitions and exams, the CVHS DECA club placed extremely well in the 2022 Northern California District Career Development Conference that took place from Jan. 14 to Jan. 16 in San Ramon, with six of the top ten finalists being students from CVHS. 

DECA members Kerry Chen, Kevin Li, Cynthia Pan, Ailin Chen, Jesse Wu and Ava Alburo placed in the top ten out of 50 tough contestants from other schools in the area. 

Junior Chen placed first as an overall finalist, scoring first place in Principles of Marketing based on role play and Principles of Marketing based on exams. On top of DECA, Chen participated in marching band in the beginning of the year and is currently participating in winter percussion, having to juggle school work as well. Despite his workload, Chen focused on studying a lot for the DECA tests and was thrilled with his performance. 

“I was super happy when I won, especially because many of the competitors were my classmates. I studied over break, reading lots of tests and practicing role play,” said Chen. 

Sophomore Alburo was the only member to participate in the Business Operations Research event of the competition, while still placing in the top ten. She presented a business plan for the Castro Valley Performing Arts (CVPA) dance studio. Alburo just recently joined DECA this past year and has been enjoying the club and all of the events. To practice, she attended DECA role play workshops, did practice tests, and studied quizlets by DECA President junior Katie Yin. 

“I was ecstatic! It surprised me because I had met so many talented people and since it was my first time, I didn’t expect to win anything. I was really proud because I had worked really hard on it and had fun as well,” explained Alburo. 

DECA Club meets on Thursdays during lunch in room 207 with newly hired advisor Bryon Thompson. During meetings, the club hosts workshops to build each other’s professional skills, create fliers, create presentations and participate in activities to develop selling skills. Thompson has really enjoyed being the new club advisor, learning a lot from the students and watching them grow exponentially. 

“I was really surprised and happy to see their achievements. Seeing them come in first and second and having six people place in the top ten made me really happy with the results,” said Thompson. 

Next year DECA plans to go to more nationwide competitions. Additionally, DECA will be hosting a talent show in the next few months, where anyone can audition!