‘DECA’ is an international association for high school and college students focusing on marketing, management, entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality and marketing sales and service. DECA stands for ‘Distributive Education Club of America.’ This year was WWT’s first year participating in the competition, with a total of 8 students from WWT. “When I started working at WWT last year, I knew bringing DECA would be an awesome opportunity for our business students.”
For the competition, students need to choose what area of focus they want to compete in. Once this is decided, there is a written exam to assess their understanding of the topic. Students then have to prepare for the district competition. At districts, students are given a role-play situation where they have 10 minutes to prepare and present to a business.
“Students have been role-playing and practicing different situations. We have also had different DECA judges come to our classroom for guidance.” Students from about 20 schools in Macomb and Oakland county competed in this competition. Warren Woods Tower participates in District 7.
The competition took place at Lake Orion, taking around 6-7 hours until it was finished. From our school, Patrick Magasark ’18 and Melinda Yang ’18 competed in this competition and made it to the top 8! When speaking to Patrick, he informed me that he would love to do something related to marketing in his very near future or even run his own business. Patrick tells me that when he went up to compete, his challenge wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be.
“I had to choose a celebrity that is easily marketable to children and explain how he/she could make something that is usually marketed to those who are older, appealing to children,” Patrick states. He also shared that his judge helped calm his nerves as they were very nice.
Patrick and Melinda are officially going to states due to their top 8 position, taking place in March and is located in Atlanta, Georgia. Patrick says he is very excited to compete at states and can’t wait to see what his next challenge will be!
Our other winner, Melinda Yang had a few things to say about the competition as well. “The whole competition was just really exciting to me because it was a chance for me to see if going into business was something I would like to get into and it turns out, business is perfect for me.”
Melinda says she has a passion for competing and loves business so she figured her two favorite things combined into one would be great for her. Melinda is fully confident in herself for states now that she’s had the experience of competing in DECA. With that being said, let’s wish her and Patrick a good luck at states in March!
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