DECA prepares students to become entrepreneurs and leaders in the outside world through healthy competition and activities that focus on marketing, finance, hospitality and management. From March 23-25, DECA competed in state, and now 14 students are attending nationals.
“We’re going up every year,” DECA sponsor Mike Freedline said. “Last year, 33 qualified to go to state, and 13 went to nationals. This year, we had 45 go to state, and 14 are going to nationals. We’re definitely on the right track and going up in numbers.”
DECA is also an opportunity for the students attending to have new experiences, as the tournaments provide guest speakers that entertain both audiences and competitors. “We got a hypnosis guy, and he brought kids to the stage, and they were hypnotized,” senior Dani Glen said. “It was really cool to see because he made them pretend to be an alien and speak in an alien language. He also made them pretend they were fishing and even made them sing at one point. It was really fun.”
