DECA will compete in an area competition where other North suburban DECA chapters will compete against one another in role plays Friday, January 25. DECA is a competitive business club where students work on building job skills in a role play setting.

“There are about 25 different areas of competitions that students can compete in ranging from finance to marketing to hospitality and tourism,” DECA sponsor, Tricia Brown, said.

Roleplays evaluate and assess a person’s business knowledge and 21st-century learning skills such as the ability to communicate with people, creatively think, and problem solve.

“When I am competing in role play I am in the automotive services marketing cluster. In order to effectively do my role play, I have to be knowledgeable and prepared to sell car parts, cars, and know how to handle anything that a dealership could undergo and ways to solve any problems that a dealership could have,” junior Muhammad Musani, said.

DECA members have high hopes for this weekends competition. Students have been preparing for their role plays by using online simulations and becoming experts in their specific cluster.

“I usually do business management which entails law and ethics or human resources. This cluster involves emotional intelligence and dealing with employees, so I have been practicing a variety of different role plays that involve business management. For example, at state, I got a scenario where two employees got into a fight and I had to find come up with effective ways in which how to best solve the employee’s dispute,” junior Ana Urosev said.

“I hope that Niles West DECA gets a lot of medals and that there are at least seven members that can place top in their divisions,” Musani said.

Although Friday is competition day, Niles West DECA members are excited to meet fellow high schoolers that are also passionate about the business club.

“I’m looking forward to meeting and making new friends from people from different DECA chapters, while also getting the opportunity to practice my roleplay skills,” senior Jovana Lazarevski, said.