Niles West students succeed at the DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) 2022 Area Competition held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Competing against 22 other schools, eight DECA members were medalists across a variety of events.

Members left the school at 6:45am on February 4th to make their way down to the convention center. They compete in role plays, where they are given a scenario, take on a role such as business owners, consultants and partners, and make decisions. They are given eight minutes (individual) or 24 minutes (team) to prepare and then eight minutes (individual) or 12 minutes (team) to present the solution.

Seniors Saira Khatoon, Jason Schroeder and Rabee Ahmad placed for Sports and Entertainment Marketing. Seniors Macy Tran and Alicia Malek placed for Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making. Senior Hailey Ellis placed for Accounting Application. Sophomore Aisha Saleem placed for Principles of Business Management and Administration. Junior Nikolas Berg placed for Restaurant and Food Service Management.

Sponsor and advisor Tricia Brown is very proud of how her team worked for this competition.

“The DECA 2022 area competition was a success. You could feel the competitors’ energy during our return to in-person competition; everyone was ready to leave virtual competitions in the past. Our competitive spirit has been reignited. Now, our focus shifts to the Illinois State competition that takes place in the beginning of March. DECA competitors that are successful at state will earn a spot to compete at the International level in Atlanta, Georgia,” Brown said.

Returning DECA member Ahmed was especially excited for the in-person experience.

“The event was pretty fun, you do things like design visuals in those 10 minutes they give you and then present your solution. Overall, it was fun to be with the DECA chapter and being back in person, because honestly being in person competing in DECA is what makes it fun. I actually managed to win three third place medals, which is great. The feeling of winning again was pretty good, and now we have state coming up in March, and I’m looking forward to that and hopefully that goes well so we can qualify for nationals.”

Prior to the event, students spend a lot of time preparing to succeed for their role plays and 100-question exam.

“I utilized a lot of the DECA resources that we have, so I can learn the vocab and learn the different aspects of the role play. I really just did a lot of practice role plays before I went, just so I would be fully prepared. I also used a lot of tips and tricks I learned from Mrs. Brown, our advisor,” Khatoon said.

New competing members benefit from this experience and can use it to do better in the future.

“The competition was not what I was expecting, I thought it was going to be very serious. You meet a lot of new people, you have a lot of fun, you experience and explore the business world. Even though we didn’t place, we thought we did well, and it was our first time so we just have to learn from this,” junior Delaney Witko said.

Learning and achieving during competition is valuable to DECA members.

“Medaling at area is honestly a really good feeling because it shows all of your hard work has paid off, and it just makes me more excited for state because it makes me feel like I have a could chance winning something there too,” Khatoon said.

DECA’s state competition will be on March 3rd-5th at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont.