DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) is a business club at Hill under the international association with the same name.
Its mission is to help emerging leaders and entrepreneurs build their marketing, finance, and hospitality and management skills.
Student choose events under the major DECA categories— ranging from Finance, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Tourism, Business Management and Administration, to Personal Financial Literacy.
At each conference students take a written test on their chosen category and then enter a role-play event where they solve a business problem of a virtual scenario and present the solution to a judge.
Students then receive scores from both the written test and the role play for a final result that determine whether they advance to the next level of competition.
The competition starts with the district conference in January where students from high schools in the same district compete against one another.
Winners then advance to the state conference in Hershey, Penn.
DECA meets a month before competitions to study and prepare for the subjects tested in the conferences. It gives the members ample resources and materials and provides strategies essential to winning the competition.
Nicole Sergiwa ’18 is this year’s president of DECA. Sergiwa says current 6th formers will be running workshops and practices throughout the season so that new members can compete to the best of their ability at every level. Sergiwa hopes her preparations will enable the club to build a strong foundation for the coming years.
Last year, 44 Hill students competed in the district event and 35 qualified for the state conference.
Eight students went on to the final stage at DECA Nationals in Anaheim, Calif.
“My favorite thing about DECA is the people,” Sergiwa said. “Our chapter has always consisted of the most striking personalities on campus. All my conversations at DECA are either ridiculously funny, meaningful, or heated. They ranged from anything like Kosovo versus Serbia to whether DiCaprio was an overrated actor. Anyone in DECA can attest to how fun competitions are.”