From March 2 to March 5, Irvington students along with other California DECA chapters met in Santa Clara to compete at one of the biggest DECA events of the year, the State Career Development Conference (SCDC). Despite hardships involving creating a CTE club on campus and decreased club membership, Irvington DECA managed to qualify 22 students in 12 events for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Anaheim.

“In order to prepare for the conference, one of the biggest changes we made this year is the implementation of the mentorship program,” Co-President senior Vishaank Gai said. “Last year, students would come to sessions once a week to learn the foundations of marketing, but due to the CTE classes, the officers realized that the marketing class is already teaching the basics. We transitioned to a program in which specific officers specialized in certain DECA events, catered to individual student needs.”

Additionally, Irvington brought home first place medals in four events. Among the seventeen teams that qualified for ICDC include Jessica Lee (12)  and Kevin Mao (10) who won first place in the Buying and Merchandising Operations Research event and the International Business Plan event respectively. Jasmine Tong-Seely (10) and Siddharth Bansal (11) placed first in the Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research team event. First-time DECA competitors, Anushka Kulkarni (9) and Kaitlyn Phan (9) took home the win in their event of Marketing Management Team Decision Making. Aside from the first place wins, DECA students placed top ten in a total of 32 events.

In addition to Irvington’s awards in the competition itself, Irvington’s Jasmine Tong Seely was also appointed to the position of Vice President of Communication for the 2017-2018 State Officer Team.

Individual students also received recognition for their involvement in DECA. Co-President Sam Moturi (12) was awarded by California DECA, the Student of the Year award for this efforts to revive Irvington DECA despite the requirement for students to take a Career Technical Education class. The class was previously not offered at Irvington until Moturi, along with the club officers and dedicated members, spoke to the district, working with FUSD and Mission Valley ROP.

The club is currently working on tweaking presentations and making the final changes before the International Conference in April.