DECA wins big in second year
The club claims several awards after competing at the Career Development Conference in Anaheim.
Photo courtesy of CHRISTINE GU
DBHS DECA members pose with their awards after competing in the Career Development Conference on Jan. 15 at the Wyndham Anaheim Garden Grove.
January 25, 2017
After weeks of preparation, Diamond Bar High School’s Distributive Education Clubs of America members won multiple awards at the Career Development Conference held Jan. 13-15 at the Wyndham Anaheim Garden Grove hotel.
The competition among the different high school chapters of DECA included two parts: a 100 question multiple-choice test and a role play section. Prior to the event, president junior Melody Chang and other officers organized hour-long competition study sessions and workshops almost everyday after school in the LINC. At the study sessions, members took mock exams and officers helped members by role playing with different prompts every time.
“The key to pass the [multiple choice] test is to practice as much as you can. Because the more you do [practice problems], the more you realize that the questions repeat,” Chang said.
For the role play, prompts are given on the day of the competition. Individual contestants only have ten minutes, whereas teams have about thirty minutes to prepare a presentation based on the given prompt and present. The judge will then grade competitors based on professionalism and category-specific performance indicators.
The DBHS chapter won first place in spirit this year. Juniors Brian Chang and Matthew Ho placed first and third in the Business Finance category, respectively; Melody Chang placed second in Retail Merchandising; junior Grant Wu placed third in Accounting Applications; and freshmen Tiffany Chang and Courtney Chan placed first and second in Principles of Hospitality, respectively.
“The competition is really to allow students to apply the skills they have learned throughout the year in the club,” Melody Chang said.
The next DECA competition will be the State Career Development Conference from March 2-5 in Santa Clara.
Thousands of members from different regions will attend the competition.
If contestants are in the top four at the state’s competition, they will qualify to move on to the International Career Development Conference on April 26-29 at the Anaheim Convention Center.