DECA club scores in annual competition

This past February, the CVHS DECA club attended its annual DECA competition. Five of our very own DECA members made it past the difficult events in the competition to qualify for the next major competition, scheduled for the end of April. It will take place in Utah and will be an international finals consisting of around 15,000 other competitors.

At the competition, the participants had to compete on teams for a variety of different events that challenged their intellect. Some of the events they took part in included entrepreneurship, an advertising simulation, and other such marketing activities. Each team could choose to either write a ten- to 30-page paper or perform a roleplay of a scenario picked by the judges.

Needless to say, the members of DECA prepared for an extremely long time in order to meet the expectations of the judges. They met at work parties in order to attend workshops for their various events. For the students who decided to write the essay, the workshop was a place for them to get help on how to write an essay to blow the judges away. For those who wanted to do the roleplay scenarios, they were given 10 minutes to prepare before practicing their techniques on how to create a suitable solution to the problem or scenario given to them.

At the competition itself, the atmosphere was very different than that of the classroom.

“You’re really excited and nervous. There’s adrenaline running through you as you try to keep yourself focused. You need to get everything together and do your best,” said senior Calvin Cheng.

Nonetheless, despite the pressure and nerve-wracking events, five students managed to pull through to the finals.

The next step for some of these DECA students is to return next year and continue competing. For the two finalists that are graduating this year, Cheng and Tiffany Keller, their decisions concern whether or not the colleges they will be attending host college-level DECA groups.
Though the competition is a month away, the five finalists have already begun their preparations. Cheng and his partner, Kenji Pinzon-Shigeta, are confident in their abilities.

“I think we’re really solid in this competition,” said Cheng.