DECA students attended the Fall Leadership Conference in Seattle from Nov. 2—Nov. 4.
“DECA is an an association or club for marketing students. DECA used to stand for Distributive Education Clubs of America but the letters do not mean anything anymore. It is just DECA,” DECA adviser Kim Root said.
DECA is a club for marketing students and teaches them ways of the business world. Sophomore Geremy Boyle said that he joined DECA to learn about business.
“[We have learned] different ways that businesses work, like marketing, marketing information and marketing management,” Boyle said.
Boyle was one of 24 PHS students that attended the Fall Leadership conference.
“[At the conference, we learned] how to keep a job, how to get a job and how to make everyday a great day,” Boyle said.
The conference was a leadership conference and was to get students pumped and excited about marketing and DECA.
“It was at the Westin in Seattle; we spent three days and two nights in downtown Seattle. We took 24 students,” Root said. “We had an inspirational speaker that talked from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., students could pick from a selection of different topics to go to. Students would pick one 45-minute session to attend and then the next time that it came through they would pick another one to attend.”
DECA is curricular and co-curricular, meaning students involved do things for DECA both inside of and outside of class time.
“Inside of class, students learn how to work and run the student store and the espresso bar; we also train for competition,” Root said. “Outside of school we do fun things like movie nights; we are going to have a Just Dance party. We do things for the community. We are doing a fundraiser for cancer research for the Fred Hutchinson Research Center. We have helped out at Maplewood’s Harvest Festival.”
Students also prepare for competition outside of class. Junior Bailey Bishop attended the conference and said that the conference helps students improve in DECA competitions.
“We go to competition and then if you go to competition and you win, then you go to state and then regionals and nationals,” Bishop said.
Sophomore Madison Salisbury also attended the conference in Seattle and explained DECA competitions.
“[At competition] you have a category like apparel and accessories. You are given a situation that you have to solve like an event that you have to plan,” sophomore Madison Salisbury said.
The Fall Leadership Conference is attended by DECA students every year.
“The conference is optional. So if students want to go and can come up with the deposit or the money to go and if it is not interfering with their athletics or work schedule then they go,” Root said. “This year, we took about 25 percent of our kids.”
