The DECA team went to the district competition at The Woodlands High School, on Saturday, Jan. 18, where most competitors advanced to state. 

DECA competed with over 20 other schools, from both CISD and KISD, as well as other districts. College Park had 125 competitors. Out of those 125 students, 118 made it to state, setting both a District 4 and College Park record. 

“Competition went very successfully,” senior vice president of competition Jonathan Wang said. “Zoe Wang, a junior in our chapter, was elected District 4 vice president and will serve the district for the upcoming school year.”

There were two different tracks in the competition: role play events and written events. In role play events students prepare by studying their subject area. There was a wide range of fields in which students were allowed to compete. Most of the competitors chose to participate in business, entrepreneurship, hospitality, finance or marketing-related competitions. 

“We will go in and give a 15 minute pitch about that scenario,” junior vice president of community service Esha Chakraborti said. “Role play competitors are judged based on their scenario presentation and the test that they take on the subject area of the event.”

Students spent months before the competition researching and writing a paper preparing for the written events. Written event competitors are judged on their paper and the presentation that they give at the competition. 

“These papers can vary from developing a marketing campaign to researching an existing business to develop business improvement strategies,” Chakrabori said. “Even to writing a business plan for their own innovative startup idea in the entrepreneurship events.” 

DECA is now preparing for the state competition taking place between February 20-22 at Fort Worth, Texas. The team will spend their time practicing until then. DECA President, Soumya Somani plans on organizing host mock competitions and peer review sessions as the team gets ready for the next competition in a few weeks.

“Our students demonstrated their adeptness for business and entrepreneurship,” Wang said. “We have already started preparing for our next stop: state competition in Fort Worth where we are looking to break some more records.”