On February 26th, members of Irvington DECA left for Anaheim to compete in one of the biggest DECA events of the year. California’s DECA Career Development Conference (SCDC) is a four-day event where DECA members across the state come together to compete and network. Members who perform exceptionally well at SCDC will be able to attend ICDC, an international conference hosted in Florida.
DECA conferences are split into three levels of scale: district, state, and international. SCDC is a state-level conference where DECA chapters across California are able to compete together. SCDC is the final conference of the DECA year before ICDC, allowing both novices and experienced members to showcase their skills.
DECA events are split into role-playing and case studies, along with prepared events, where members prepare for a written project and presentation. DECA’s role play and case study events involve both a career cluster exam and an impromptu event, where presenters are given ten minutes to prepare a topic and present it to judges. Prepared events include written projects and a presentation, those which students have been working on all throughout the school year, due to the preparation required.
Irvington DECA’s officers worked relentlessly to prepare everyone for the event, making resources and curriculums for the members. Ritika Surana (12), Direction of Varsity, shared a bit of what she did, which included “giving feedback to members on reports and practice presentations, as well as creating chapter resources that members were able to take advantage of during their preparation time.”
Many members felt that this year’s SCDC was a lot better than last year’s, both being more enjoyable, as well as successful. Anushka Patel (12) agreed with this sentiment, saying, “After four years, it was a lot easier for me, mainly because I’ve done it for so long. The trip went really smoothly, and I loved going to the Irvine Spectrum.” When asked for advice for prospective DECA members, she replied, “Practice does make perfect, and if you are good at debate or ModelUN, those skills really transfer over quite well.”
Logistically, the event went very smoothly, and DECA members ran into no trouble. However, preparing the members for Amanda Lai (12), president of Irvington DECA, stated, “One complication that we faced was ensuring every member received the support they needed, as many people had conflicts with deadlines, preparation, and such.” However, Irvington DECA members still performed exceptionally well. Among those who qualified for ICDC include Melissa Ho, Meha Vedere, Aarna Agarwal, Ridhi Kadam, Asiha Shoukat, Sophia Khan, Sabella Han, and Abirami Kumar.
The final DECA event of the school year will be DECA ICDC, from April 26th to the 29th.
