Leesville’s DECA Club traveled to the Raleigh Convention Center to compete in the District Competition on December 8, 2014. Leesville falls into District 3 and competes against other schools in the same district with over a thousand students in total.
Categories students can participate in Apparel and Accessories, Tourism and Hospitality, Restaurant and Foodservice Management, Principles of Marketing, Retail Merchandising and more. Sports Marketing has the most participants.
Before Districts, each student has to complete a hundred-question exam on their topic. During Districts, each student has to roleplay. They are given a situation and have ten minutes to properly prepare themselves to present their ideas to a judge. Both the roleplay and the exam are averaged together to give the participant a final score.
“[DECA] got me started on marketing which I think is what I want to do after college, and so Deca is beneficial because it gets me ready for the business world.” said Ailsa Conolly, a junior at Leesville.
At the award ceremony, the Proficiency Award is given to students who performed well overall in their category. The Proficiency Award is given to the top competitors of each category.
Districts is a preview of what will occur during State competition. States takes place on February 26-28, 2015 in Greensboro where students from all over the state come together. Although students do not have to place at Districts before attending States, it makes great practice.
