DECA Members Advance to State Competition

16 Members Given Chance at State

Photo courtesy of Gregory Phea

Advancing to state for Independent Business Plan, seniors Gegory Phea, Shiva Kumar and Rithvik Saravanan stand with their medals.

Perry Jamail, Reporter

With competitions in a variety of subjects and categories such as Travel, Tourism Decision Making, Startup Business Plan and Merchandising Promotional Plan, DECA’s competition is not as simple as the four letter abbreviation seems. This past weekend over 1,200 students competed in the district to give DECA students a shot at advancing to state.

The DECA club sponsor, Kimberly Stapleton, and the club members successfully sent 16 of their members to the state competition taking place in Dallas on Feb. 20-22. Stapleton explains how advancing to state is a huge win for DECA this year.

“It was a very competitive environment, so it was a pretty big deal for those who made it” Stapleton said. “So it’s a great honor, and plus this opens up an opportunity for the students to then compete with other DECA members across the state of Texas to try to earn a slot to go to Atlanta, [where] the international competition is being held this year.”