DECA is an international career and technical student organization (CTSO) that prepares high school and college students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and business management. It has over 300,000 members, about half the population of Wyoming.
Four DECA seniors got the opportunity to represent PHS and Washington State at the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of April.
DECA advisor Kason Koski traveled with Danielle Goeker, Cayden Robinson, Ava Morrison, and Josh Strawn.
Goeker and Robinson represented PHS in a 25-page paper and 10-minute presentation on The Wall, in the category of Student-Based Enterprise Retail Operations.
Similarly, Ava Morrison and Josh Strawn represented The Blend in Student-Based Enterprise Food Operations. The process started in October with a paper due in January. All of this happened while still managing The Wall and The Blend.
“This group was my first group that I’ve had for all three years. So, special class and I’m super proud of all of their hard work. It was just great to see all that work pay off, because they’ve been working towards this for the last three years,” Koski said.
This conference allowed students to experience not just learning, but Atlanta as well.
“It was incredible to see so many DECA kids from across the country,” Robinson said
Robinson said that every time he turned around at the conference, there was a chance for a new interaction with people with the same passion.
“We had these kids who walked past us for the Tri Cities, and we were presenting, and they looked at our presentations, asked, ‘Wait, are you guys The Wall?’. They’ve seen our videos; they saw our digital marketing. [The conference] was really a place for you to connect with people,” Goeker said.
This trip for the four students wasn’t just to compete and be all business focused; it was a trip that allowed for new activities.
“We went to a Braves game; we went to Six Flags. We tried a ton of [different] food and stuff like that,” Strawn said.
Not only was this a competition about business, but also a competition about pin trading.
“Each state as DECA gets their own pins,” Morrison said. “For example, this year we had a Super Bowl one. Utah had a Swig [cup] pin; Hawaii had a hibiscus flower that was really pretty. It’s funny because [about pin trading], people took it as a competition to get the best set of pins. People would buy others, there was a Labubu pin that people were selling for like $100.”
