Now that we have settled into the second semester, many activities at OHS are hitting prime time. One of these activities is a club called DECA. DECA is for students in business where they compete in different kinds of marketing and business-related competitions, one of which took place on Feb. 1. Over this past weekend, the DECA students competed in their district level competition at Kirkwood High School.
“…the students will compete in a category, whether it’s a roleplay or prepared event that they have done a paper presentation on, and then we will have an awards session…” DECA sponsor Amelia Darby said.
The awards ceremony will decide whether or not the students will go to state. The state competition takes place in Kansas City.
“…[At the state competition] you get to be with everyone else… You do your event and you take a test… you get to watch a performance…then you go home and you get to see if you get to go to ICDC…” DECA President Brooke Fagyal said.
ICDC is the international competition that you get to participate in if you place high enough in the state competition. Last year the international competition took place in California and three OHS students got to participate. Students hope to make it to Internationals once again and some have made it one step closer by placing high enough in the district competition to be able to go to state with their campaign.
“We are doing an innovative marketing campaign for the Kimmswick Strawberry Festival, and we’re going to present how we are going to promote it to a younger audience of people,” Fagyal said.
This is the campaign that Fagyal and DECA Vice President Alex Vaughn took to districts this past weekend. They won first place in their category against two others. Other students and groups also competed with their projects.
“We have students that have done business operations research, so they have looked and they have done research for AI for the local Perk It Up coffee shop… We have a student that has prepared a presentation for sustainable products for a hotel and lodging company,” Darby said.
During the competition, not only do students get to prepare to present to the judges, but they also get to connect with each other.
“My favorite part is how exhilarating it is to present our campaign for the first time and find out if we get to go to state. I also like being able to socialize with other people in DECA,” Vaughn said.
Even though there are many fun and exciting aspects of the district competition, there are also some slow parts.
“My least favorite part is how long it is because there was one year where we sat at awards for like an hour before they actually said them and it was the worst…” Fagyal said.
Despite the times where patience plays a part, events for clubs like this can bring people together and create a great community of students.
“…We all become a big class even though we aren’t together all the time,” Evie Bagley (12) said. “It’s just fun being together and bonding with each other.”
