The annual DECA Competition has happened once again, with students competing against one another across the country. This year, a number of Shoreline Community College students competed in Washington state-wide, and several students advanced into the nationwide competition, which took place in San Francisco.
DECA is a nonprofit student organization that prepares high school and college students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management throughout the globe. The competitions generally involve business-related events and topics such as marketing, hospitality, tourism, and entrepreneurship, all of which can be taken and used when entering the workforce.
Student Russell Dhubian said, “It’s a learning experience for us students.”
Vanessa Bella, another student who competed in the Event Planning category, said that she “learned a lot about coming up with creative and out-of-the-box ideas” that can be “translated into a realistic, structured plan” to be used in the future.
The main event consisted of several segments from Apr. 5 to Apr. 8. The event opened with a lion dance, in which little kid lion dancers roamed between the bustling crowd of 500 people across the country. Each day of the event had different events, such as workshops and Linkedin portrait studios. See the rundown below for more details regarding the events.
One of the many competitors from SCC, Shohei Ogawa, competed with his partner Nathan Hauw in the Marketing Communications department. Both of them were able to qualify for the nationals, giving them a chance to visit San Francisco to compete. However, during the nationals, they weren’t able to qualify for the finals.
Ogawa is the only student who has competed more than once. This year was different for him; last year, Ogawa was just a member, but this year, he was the Vice President of SCC’s DECA group. According to him, “Working with the president, Grace Tjandra, and other officers made me more engaged in DECA, which made me more comfortable and less afraid.”
Unfortunately, none of the SCC students managed to win first place, but three of them earned top 10 finishes in their categories. Matthew Adrian and Sienna Gunawan both placed in the top 10 of International Marketing, and Kai-Cheng Liao placed in the top 10 of Financial Accounting.
When the students weren’t actively competing, they had down time to enjoy the many vistas and points of interest in San Francisco, such as the Golden Gate Bridge. Just like Seattle during this time of the year, the weather was both sunny and windy at the same time, creating a pleasant breeze — as long as jackets were on, that is. The group had some good San Francisco food, enjoyed the hotel, and even visited the beaches despite the windy weather. One notable restaurant the students visited was a ramen store called Mensho Tokyo, which they claimed had “very rich and flavorful ramen” that “can be compared to Ichiran Ramen in Japan.”
In the end, even if none of the participants won first place, this is certainly an experience none of them will be forgetting anytime soon. Being able to enter the nationals of DECA is an extremely high honor and a great learning experience for everyone involved.
