DECA Students Compete at DECA Districts and Look Forward to State Competition

Arrowhead’s DECA club members competed at DECA Districts on Saturday, January 6th.  The event was held at Kettle Moraine High School and started at 8:00 am.  The event ran until 2:30 pm.  Steve Melzer, Arrowhead business teacher and DECA advisor, and Stephanie Hopkins, Arrowhead guidance counselor and DECA advisor, chaperoned the trip.

According to Emma Hoffman, an Arrowhead senior and DECA’s VP of community service, “DECA Districts is a big event where kids compete in specific events.  For each event, there is a tests and two role plays.”

Hoffman says, “48 students went on behalf of Arrowhead’s DECA chapter.”

According to Hoffman, the test is taken in mid-December before the event and the two role plays are done at the event.

“A role play is basically where you’re given a scenario related to your event topic and you have to identify the problem and come up with your own creative solution.  You get ten minutes to read the prompt and write down your ideas.  You then get ten more minutes to present your ideas to a judge,” says Hoffman.

Natalie Purko, an Arrowhead senior and DECA’s VP of the school store said, “Me and my partner, Jonathan Whitter, won first in our event so we qualify for state.”

Purko says, “I love doing role plays because you never really know what to expect so you get a chance to think under pressure and be creative.”

Purko says, “How the scoring system works is the highest scores for the test, role play number one, and role play number two all get medals.  The highest four over all scores, that is all the scores combined, place. The top two places go to state.”

According to Purko, the Wisconsin DECA State competition will held in the hotel Grand Lake Geneva from March 3 through March 6th.

Abby Fickle, an Arrowhead senior and DECA president says, “Everyone who qualified goes to state and we have an additional 20 students that we take as well. We choose who comes based on how well they scored on the tests and role plays and their participation in DECA.”

Chloe Seltz, an Arrowhead junior and DECA leadership team member says, “After the role plays, we ate lunch in the cafeteria. They brought in Rocky Rococo pizza for us and the Picnic Basket for the judges.”

According to Seltz, there was also a hypnotist in the gym to entertain students while the judges collaborate and scores were measured.

Seltz says, “I was chosen to get hypnotized and it was a pretty weird experience.  I don’t really remember anything but when I came out of it I felt tired and my neck hurt.”

Logan Gehring, an Arrowhead sophomore and DECA leadership member said, “It was so funny to see Chloe get hypnotised.  I am glad she was the person to get called from Arrowhead because she was fun to watch.”

After lunch and the hypnotist, students headed to the award ceremony.

Gehring said, “The award ceremony is so nerve wracking because you are just waiting for your event to get called to see how you did.  But it is also fun to see your friends and fellow DECA chapter members do well and get medals.”

Jonathan Witter, an Arrowhead senior and DECA leadership team member said, “I was very nervous on the stage, especially after they had already named the first three places because they were either going to call out names or we didn’t place.”

Fickle said, “I’m so proud of how our chapter members performed at districts. I feel like everyone did their best and we had a lot of people get awards whether they placed or not.”

Purko says, “For DECA state, it is a little different.  Students do projects between 10 and 20 pages on a topic and present them to a judge. I am doing the learn and earn project which is how we as a chapter learn about business and marketing while earning money.  We are focusing out project on Hawks Fest which is in the fall.”

According to Purko, students still do two role plays along with a test at DECA state in addition to the project.

Jalyn Webster, an Arrowhead senior and DECA leadership team member, says, “I love DECA state. We have a lot of freedom but a lot of responsibility as well. We have to make sure we get to our test, role plays, and presentations on time.”

Seltz says, “It’s my first time going to DECA state. I don’t really know what to expect, but ELC was a blast and I know it’s going to be fun getting to spend more time with my DECA team.”

ELC, Emerging Leaders Conference, was held in the dells in late October. It is a conference open to all chapter members.

Mckenna Melzer, an Arrowhead sophomore and DECA leadership team member said, “ELC is the first big all chapter trip of the year and we all use the time to get to know each other and have fun at the Kalahari.”