On March 9-11, Wakeland DECA competed at the State Career Development Conference or SCDC in Downtown Dallas. 125 members from the Wakeland chapter earned this opportunity through their advancement from the District 7 conference back in January. In the 11 districts throughout the state of Texas, 5830 students received this opportunity.

“For a state competitor at Wakeland, members competing in a prepared event first focus on editing the 10-20 page paper they advanced from districts with. At the same time, role-play competitors study for the state exam, which is a large percentage of their overall score. After the first half of competition is complete, members practice their prepared presentations and role-plays that they competed at state with,” junior Sarah Sonny said.
Besides practicing and presenting, there are many other events and activities that SCDC offers. This includes the opening and closing sessions, the exhibitor hall, and senior activities. When students have free time between chapter events, they can get lunch, play outdoor games, or just hang out. Additionally Wakeland DECA attended the executive session where the state officer candidates give their speeches and are elected. This year, Sarah Sonny was elected as a Texas State officer.

“As a newly elected state officer, I now represent 19,000 Texas DECA members. Texas DECA is the largest association in the world of the largest Career and Technical Student Organizations, which means that the State Officer Team is required to uphold the image of Texas DECA,” Sonny said. “Currently, I am preparing presentations for the Texas DECA Leadership Summit where state officers train newly elected district officers. I will also be serving as one of the lead international voting delegates to elect the new executive (international) officer team. Finally, the state officer team is in charge of hosting next year’s State Career Development Conference in Houston, TX.”

Out of Wakeland’s 125 participants, 50 students advanced to ICDC, the international conference held in Orlando, Florida on April 21-26. Although skipping school to go to Disney World is a perk, participating in DECA also has many more benefits.

“One of the big things is kids will say it’s a business club, so I don’t want to do that.” Wakeland DECA sponsor, Mr. Drenowatz said. “DECA is something where you have an idea and a basic vocabulary behind it, but you’re learning organization, how to plan business, writing skills, oral skills, and how to present things properly in front of adult judges. You’re going to do a lot of hard work, and you may not even make it. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of failure. I like the kids who fail a little bit, get hungry, come back, and go ‘freak no, that’s not happening again.'”
With Wakeland’s long line of success in DECA, we wish luck to their members competing at ICDC on April 21-26.