Niles West’s DECA stuents will be representing the state of Illinois in Orlando, Florida at DECA Nationals this Friday through Wednesday. DECA is a business club that enables students to compete in topics ranging from Marketing, Accounting, Finance, and Hospitality.
“I initially joined DECA sophomore year, but didn’t actually start competing till junior year. Basically, my best friend (Max Yusim) and I wanted to compete together so we partnered up and managed to win 3rd place for Sports Marketing Promotional Plan. This year, we decided to add another friend of ours, George Tripkos to our group and in the end, that decision seems to have been for the best! It’s not easy but I do it with my best friends so I enjoy it,” senior Paul Ceneac said.
In order to qualify for internationals, the student must get top 3 in whatever competition category they are in.
“I expect my students to do their best in their competitive events. The goal is to qualify for finals which will put the students in the Top 10%. The ultimate goal for all students is to earn competency, which is the Top 25% at ICDC. As long as I can remember, at least one Niles West has earned this distinction each year competing at ICDC. Our goal was to earn more medals at Area than last year’s record, which we did. Another goal was to take the maximum number students allowed to IL-CDC (40), which we did. Our goal at IL-CDC was to qualify 20% of our chapter for ICDC, which we did. The goal for the students in my Honors Level Business Strategies Class was to have 90% of the students attending IL-CDC to earn a Top 10 medal, which was achieved. Students compete in at least one type of competitive event. All are required to compete in Role Play and the Top 4 overall earn a bid to ICDC. These students take a 100 question Economics Exam, a 100 question Career Cluster Exam, and complete two real-life business/marketing/management/hospitality role plays in front of a business professional/judge. Most of the Niles West students compete in a second competitive event, which is a written project (11 page, plus a 100 question test OR a 30 page paper; Both require at least a 15-20 minute presentation). The Top 3 overall in the state in each written event qualify for ICDC,” DECA sponsor, Jean Attig explained.
The students traveling to Orlando this year include: Jessica Daczo, Reena Merchant, George Tripkos (these first three students qualified in TWO events), Paul Ceneac, Rebecca Chan, Fabeiha Khan, Roshni Shah, Mahrukh Khalid, Nilofar Larya, Harshil Damji, Ahsan Lodhika, Max Yusim (qualified but unable to attend).
