While students at many high schools compete in business and marketing competitions through DECA Inc., our school doesn’t have a chapter.

That raises an interesting question: what exactly are we missing?

You may have noticed a trend within your social media around the beginning of March. This would be the time of Minnesota DECA state. Many students from schools all across the state were recently sharing how they participated. Seeing this trend it then became clear to me how popular DECA is among other high schools. All of this might raise the question of what is DECA?

DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America. Essentially this is a competitive school based club where students learn about and prepare business and marketing presentations as if they were working in corporate America. According to the DECA website, “DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management in highs hooks and colleges around the globe” The DECA organization was founded in 1946 which means that high schools all across the world have proposed this opportunity for their students for the last 80 years. 

To gain more first person knowledge on the student experience, I interviewed a Twin Cities suburban high school DECA student. She has been a representative for her school’s DECA organization at many different levels of competition all through high school.

Some of her favorite things about her DECA experience were meeting new people, learning about the business world, gaining skills by talking to not only peers but also adults. Something that she emphasized was the flexibility of the program. She talked about how some students go into DECA with a very serious mindset where they put all of their extracurricular energy into it. While others choose to use it as a learning experience and a way to sharpen their leadership skills, as well as adding on to their existing extracirculars. Students with all kinds of availability and effort are welcomed. Overall commitment varies but each student involved grows and learns throughout the process. 

Another question that you might be asking is what does it actually look like to prep and meet as a DECA student. DECA students describe that in their experience they meet consistently on a set day of the week. In those meetings students participate in workshops and learn about the different pillars of DECA. They also learn how to present their chosen topic from the competitive clusters that DECA has to offer. These include marketing, finance, hospitality, and management, entrepreneurship and personal financial literacy. Once said event is chosen by a student or group of students they start to learn as much about their event as suited in preparation for DECA events which could eventually lead to DECA District, State, and International competitions. 

When I think of Roosevelt high school I think of all of our achievements and growth specifically within the past couple years. We are fostered as a thriving and fast growing Minneapolis public school. This is why it is so shocking to me that such a popular high school experience isn’t provided here at RHS. I realize in saying this that we are in fact a Minneapolis public high school and may not have the same resources that suburban high schools have access too. But I also know that here at RHS we hold ourselves to a high standard and our students and staff are very motivated and resourceful. I believe that if many students and our leadership agree that this is an important part of our high school experience we would be able to establish a DECA chapter at RHS. I think it would likely become popular among the current student population. It could also be part of what makes Roosevelt so special, being one of the few DECA organizations in the city.