Last Monday, Jan. 12, students from DECA competed in the district competition at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. DECA is an organization that teaches students skills to enter entrepreneurship and leadership-oriented jobs through different competitive events based on marketing, finance and hospitality. At the competition, students chose between role-play and written events, which were compared to MCQ test scores they took earlier. 49 students qualified to move on to the state competition.

Written and role-play events suit different types of students. Written events involve students creating reports based on research in a relevant topic, which are then judged. 

“[In] written events, there’s partner events and individual events, and they can be about finance, marketing et cetera,” Pranitha Mantrala, 11, said. 

Meanwhile, the role-play scenarios involve students having to think of a response to a situation on the spot. 

“[For example], if your event is in human resources and you’re wanting to do a staff meeting, you could  [present] a written communication email to [employees] about the staff meeting,” Ashima Nair, 12, DECA Co-President, said.

Students’ performances are based on key performance indicators, which are guidelines for what skills they need to display in different events, like describing the relationship between businesses and government in entrepreneurship events.

“There’s a … PDF with all the performance indicators you could get,” Nair said. “I specifically looked at the promotion and product service management performance indicators and that’s just a great way to prep for your role play.”

To get to the district division, students had to take a written multiple choice test and score at least a 75 out of 100. These scores, along with performance at districts, culminate to determine if students move on to the next stage. 

“Then, depending on how many people competed and what the average score was, they will average your district score and the role play scores …  to get your final score,” Trisanth Srinivasan, 12, said. “If you’re among the top 20 people who competed in your event, you’ll qualify for states.”

The DECA environment not only prepares them for their career-specific topics, but make them well rounded and give them general life skills.

“I think it’s a really great tool for students to …learn how to step outside of [their] comfort zone,” Mantrala said. “If someone might not be good at … helping the people, they can start learning … because that’s a big part of the grading. And it just helps you grow as a person, especially with all the help of the two people around you.”