Students in DECA were participating in competitions with other schools demonstrating their college and career knowledge. Luckily, students from Utica won very special awards for their skills and talent.
“I joined DECA during my junior year. I did a partnered event with a close friend of mine, and we did pretty good,” senior Kendall Bassy said. “It definitely opened my eyes and I really love DECA, so I did it again my senior year.”
Many students who have joined DECA have stated they have no regrets. DECA giving students so many opportunities for a more set future is very good for students with specific life plans.
“I joined junior year because a lot of my friends were getting into it and it made me want to do it,” senior Blake Larsen said.
Students influenced by friends to join DECA were thrown with many new ideas for after high school and participated in all of the activities given to them to the point of competing.
“We were pretty hyped at winning the medals even though it wasn’t first place,” senior Kendall Bassy said.
Students competing with each other, and other schools was definitely a challenge to those participating. From the different choices and expectations to creating it, all students put in their all for the rewards.
“We were definitely excited for our films, a little disappointed we didn’t get first mainly because we’re so competitive,” senior Blake Larsen said. “But I’d say we still did okay.”
DECA is a high school and/or college program for students interested in business to prepare them for careers involving marketing, finance, hospitality, management, etc. It includes hands-on learning and in-class instruction. In DECA, you need to be in marketing classes.
“It’s a co-curricular activity where students pick different areas of marketing, or finance, or hospitality, or advertising where they compete in either prepared events, like written events, or a team roleplay event where they get a case study to solve, to learn or think on the spot, and then they also have marketing clusters. Overall, it’s been around for 75 years, there’s over 300,000 members,” said teacher Ms. Boice.
Multiple students were taken to California to hold a conference with other schools with Mrs. Boice. During the conference, award winners were recognized during the Great Awards Session.
“I thought we had a great year this year, I thought it was outstanding how the 2 teams I took broke records, we’ve never had 2 teams go into nationals and then both get into finals, so that was exciting for us. I’m super proud of their hard work and dedication,” said teacher Ms. Boice.
