DECA

In high school I participated in DECA, and it was a great experience. DECA was where I got my first exposure to business and marketing and it really drove my decision to pursue business and marketing as a career.

So what is DECA? At one time DECA was an acronym for 'Distributive Education Clubs of America.' They have since dropped the acronym and now it has the tag line: "DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and maagment in high schools and colleges around the globe."

DECA was a great program for me. A large part of DECA are the competitions. Each student has the opportunity to pick a focus to compete in. At the competitions they take a 100 question test and participate in 2 role plays. The role plays are like mini case studies. They have 10 minutes to read and prepare before role playing with a judge for ten minutes. It's pretty intense.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to judge a few events at the National DECA conference that is being held in Salt Lake City. It was a great experience. Over all, I was very impressed with what the students came up with in 10 minutes. I remember well, sitting on the other side of the table during the role plays. It was fun to sit and think about about how DECA opened my eyes to marketing and business years ago, and I was glad I had the chance to give back just a little and help out the current students. I hope that DECA can make as much of an impact on the current students as it did on me.

And good luck to the finalist at nationals today!