With over fifty-nine different competitive events and roughly 216,000 participants, Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) is the leading business education high school program in the country. DECA offers opportunities to win scholarships, awards, and develop important business skills to students who are interested in business and hoping to refine their financial literacy. At the end of April, more than twenty-thousand students from around the country will gather in Anaheim, California for DECA’s International Career Development Conference (ICDC), its most prestigious event.
DECA consists of three rounds of competition. Their optional regionals is a practice round for those competing in “roleplay” events. The state round, State Career Development Conference (SCDC), is the first round of “real” competition. Students have to place in SCDC in order to qualify for ICDC. If a student competed in a virtual challenge, then they would compete in a separate statewide competition. ICDC is the final round of competition.
Within DECA, there are a total of fifty-nine different competitions from which a student can choose. Each event falls under a specific business discipline and a competition format. The six disciplines are business management and administration, entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality and tourism, marketing, and personal financial literacy. The four competition formats are virtual business challenges, roleplay, case studies, and prepared events such as essays and research.
In virtual business challenges, students manage a simulated business with the goal of making the most profit in the given time frame. In roleplay events, competitors are given a scenario and asked to present a solution as though they were representing the company from the scenario.
“The events that are most competitive are the roleplay events as there are the most people competing,” said Jayden Yu, a sophomore at Winston Churchill DECA who qualified for ICDC this year. Yu and his group competed in a written event that entailed writing a twenty page essay and giving a fifteen minute presentation in front of a judge. “This year’s prompt was about how a company would find an employee,” said Yu.
DECA offers more than just competition. According to DECA’s website, “DECA’s scholarship program provides over $200,000 in scholarships to high school and college DECA members at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) each year.”, although none of the scholarships exceed 5,000 dollars. Once a student qualifies for ICDC, DECA boasts that members will have career and college networking opportunities as well.
The most valuable reward DECA can grant its members is not a 5,000 dollar scholarship or a top-ten plaque, but the knowledge and skills conducive to success in business or really any career. The most important skill Jayden Yu has learned from DECA so far has been interpersonal skills.
“It helped me learn a lot with working with a group,” he said, “it’s just like a team game, you know, like a sport.” Aside from business skills, Yu explained, “It can help with other skills like public speaking and research.” Yu plans on continuing DECA in junior year. “I’m hoping to continue to improve on public speaking, research and critical thinking– about how to make a plan that genuinely works and how to help a company out.”
According to their website, 98% of DECA members report they gained problem solving skills, 97% report they learned how to communicate thoughts and ideas, and 86% report that they learned how to work as part of a team. Only 82% of DECA members “recognized the benefit and responsibility of community service.”
To become a DECA member, one must pay the international chapter dues ($8), the state chapter dues ($7 in Maryland), and the school dues. At Winston Churchill High School, this adds up to thirty-one dollars. SCDC costs upwards of $200 and varies by state. This cost does not cover food or transportation.
“For me, I end up having to bring an extra $100 just to buy meals [at SCDC],” former Westview High School student Lea Chang explained. She had been part of DECA for all four years of high school. One can circumvent the cost of SCDC by participating in the virtual business challenges, but once qualified for ICDC, there is no avoiding the roughly 1500 dollar price tag unless one’s school has the resources to provide financial assistance such as Churchill.
On top of the entry fees, purchasing a DECA uniform is also required. “All DECA members appearing before a judge or onstage must wear an official DECA blazer” according to their website. DECA blazers are sold exclusively on the DECA store for eighty dollars. At Churchill, some former members sell their blazers for a small discount.
“If you put a lot of work into it, I think it’s worth it,” said a Winston Churchill DECA member and an ICDC qualifier. “Traveling across the country is going to be a lot anyways so I think it’s a fair price, but that price is just not for everyone” another Winston Churchill ICDC qualifier Jayden Yu explained.
Many disadvantaged schools cannot afford to have a DECA program as creating a school chapter requires upwards of $150 and at least ten members. More affluent areas appear to have larger DECA chapters. The membership campaign is a recognition program determined “based on your membership submitted in the online membership system” according to DECA. Out of the ten Maryland schools receiving Membership Campaign recognition, 40% are in the Bethesda-Potomac-Rockville area, 40% are private schools, and one is in Fulton.
DECA is still a great club for those who can afford it and are willing to put in the effort. “I would say it was a lot of work because that twenty page essay– it’s a twenty page essay but being able to work with a group and split it out, it helps,” Yu said.
One member explained, “[DECA is for] anyone who wants to learn more about business and people who want to get outside of their comfort zone.” “I think it’s a great club to join especially if you are going into a business major,” Yu adds.
Written by Huan Changvu of Winston Churchill High School
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons