Six Lake Oconee Academy students competed in the Georgia DECA Region 9 competition on Dec. 6 in Loganville, where nearly 200 scholars across the region participated.
Four of the six LOA students placed at the top of their presentation categories and advanced to the Georgia DECA State Career Development Conference on Feb. 26-28.
LOA students Hal Strickland, Ronin Gibson, Beth Harris, Nicole Wang, Brenlee Brown, and Alley McCullough took part in the competition last month. Strickland and Gibson presented as a group for the Sports & Entertainment Team Decision Making category.
Harris placed third in Principles of Hospitality & Tourism; Wang took second place in Principles of Business Management & Administration; Brown placed fourth in Principles of Entrepreneurship; and McCullough placed fourth in Principles of Marketing.
DECA, formerly known as the Distributive Education Clubs of America, is a nonprofit organization with over 4,000 high school and collegiate chapters throughout the country. Participating students prepare for careers in finance, marketing, hospitality, and entrepreneurship.
According to a recent LOA press release, students at the regional competition are challenged with both performance- based and written assessments and must complete a 100-question industry exam. The students then participate in a “live role-play scenario” for 10 minutes, during which they reveal their final solution to a judge.
Brown, Harris, McCullough, and Wang will compete at the February state competition at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. The four will retake the 100-question assessment and be placed in a different competition category with a new role-play scenario.
Kati Mize is the Work-Based Learning Coordinator at LOA and the school’s DECA advisor. She said this is the school’s first year with the nonprofit chapter, so she wanted to make sure her students knew what to expect as they entered the regional competition.
“For regional competition, students stayed after school to prepare for their specific event, and prepared practice tests and flash cards to strengthen their vocabulary and knowledge for their category,” Mize said. “I try to keep them focused on the event guidelines and help direct them to resources that will help them, including examples of previous years’ submissions that DECA provides.”
According to Mize, LOA DECA students are eligible for the competition if they have participated in, or are currently taking, a business or marketing class. She says that she spoke about the regional competition during one of the chapter meetings earlier in the school year.
Mize said she believes the competition can help students in multiple ways as they prepare for their future careers. She mentioned that many of DECA’s student competition events require students to “think on their feet and respond to a realistic business situation.”
“They are scored on their response, and also on how they deliver it,” Mize said. “This requires them to think not only about the topic, but also about how they are presenting their ideas. They are also expanding their vocabulary, as well as gaining confidence.”
Overall, Mize said she has told each student that she is “proud of them for competing, no matter the outcome.” She noted the situation could be difficult, as the students were all trying something new at the school and couldn’t have anyone advise them on expectations while competing.
In the coming weeks before the state competition, Mize said she looks forward to seeing her students take many opportunities, such as networking with other competitors and demonstrating their work from the last few months.
“I also look forward to the full experience of DECA’s State Career Development Conference,” Mize said. “These LOA students are still learning what DECA is all about, and I think going to the state conference will help them see more of the opportunities that DECA has to offer.”