DECA districts were held at the University of Missouri-Kansas City on Feb. 26. There was an award ceremony at the end of the event, and plenty of University Academy students won first, second or third place in their events.
High school students from around the Kansas City area attended the district competition.
DECA is an organization that teaches students about various types of skills related to business and marketing.
As part of the district competition, students were given different role play scenarios that required them to come up with an idea to fix a problem in a business. They then had to explain the idea to the boss (the judge). Students competed in a variety of areas such as: hospitality and restaurant management, buying and merchandising, food marketing and more.
While at the event, students and chaperones spotted a former UA teacher and DECA coach, Mr. Matthew Gandy, and former Upper School principal Dr. Clem Ukaoma, as both were judging.
The new coaches for DECA this year at UA are Mr. Chris Bergida and Mr. Samuel Carr, who are both business teachers at UA.
“My first year as a DECA advisor was a great learning experience for me,” Mr. Carr said. “I had to lean heavily on the returning members’ experience, and now with a year under my belt, I’m excited to implement changes that will hopefully make participation in DECA less of a burden for students and increase our community involvement. Overall, I’m incredibly proud of students who stepped up and broke out of their comfort zone.”
Some students were nervous about the competition, but they later found out there was nothing to worry about. Many students expressed that they had a great experience.
Junior Cameron McFarlin said, “My experience was good. I got to compete and put my business knowledge to the test against other tough competitors!”
Participants found the events to be hard or easy depending on how well they do with presenting and thinking fast on their feet. Through the competition, they were also able to test out different ideas.
“I started doing DECA because I have a very innovative spirit and wanted to see how my ideas would foster against others in Missouri. I wanted to see if my business ideas have potential in the real world,” McFarlin said.
DECA is a good look for a student hoping to earn scholarships for college, and many people are persuaded to do it by this potential benefit.
“I would recommend DECA to the incoming freshmen because it’s very easy to do,” McFarlin said. “In addition to that, you can do certain events with your friends, and you get to travel to places such as UMKC.”
UA’s DECA students who competed at districts were: Ricky Barnes, Marquis Byers, Keaton Davis, Taleah Eubanks, Anaiya Fielder-Bey, Ashlee Ford, Alisa Garrett, Hannah Getahun, Elysha Graves, Keon Johnson, Aaliyah Lee, Sparrow Leigh-Baker, G’Niyah Long, McFarlin, Kaelyn Pointer, Mychael Ramsey, Jaidah Starr, Leilani Tauheed and Mariah Wells.
Districts ended with five students qualifying for state. These students were juniors Graves, Leigh-Baker, Tauheed, McFarlin and Ramsey, a sophomore.
There were also 10 state runners-up: juniors Barnes, Garrett, Eubanks and Starr; seniors Lee, Davis and Byers; and freshmen Fielder-Bey, Getahun and Wells.
The state competition was held at Crown Center on March 23-25, and ICDC, the national competition, will be in Orlando, Florida, on April 25-30.
Graves, Leigh-Baker and Tauheed placed high enough in their events to qualify for ICDC.
