After competing very successfully in the District VI Career Development Conference at Wayzata High School, the Orono DECA program is looking to come out victorious once again at the state conference.

The Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) has been around for more than 60 years and has been in the lives of thousands of students in the U.S., many in Orono too.  Currently, the high school division has around 200,000 members in 3,500 different schools all around the nation. The goal of DECA is to prepare students for college, and teach them business skills for later in life.

“I have learned a piece of what it would take to be a part of the business world” junior Anna Schaible said.

Another main goal of DECA is to be a learning experience for high school students.   

“I enjoy watching the journey of the students through this” DECA advisor and marketing teacher Mr. Jurek said.  As Orono’s DECA advisor, Jurek plays an active role in the students’ DECA experience.  He oversees all the students working on their projects and gives them guidance when they need it.  “I treat this piece as my coaching experience,” Jurek said.

“It opens kids eyes to opportunities and gives them confidence” Jurek said,  “DECA shows kids that to be successful, they have to work hard for it.”

DECA is made up of six different districts in Minnesota, with Orono competing in district six.  On January 31, the Orono DECA program went to Wayzata High School for the district conference. Here, Orono was competing with six other schools: Hopkins, Eden Prairie, St. Louis Park, Chaska, Chanhassen, and Wayzata. Orono students were going head to head against students from these schools, as well as other DECA groups from Orono.  At districts, groups present their projects to the judges and receive a score to see if they progress to the state conference.

Students have many options for what kind of a project they present at DECA.  Some examples of are constructing advertising campaigns or  international business plans. Schaible and her partner junior Lucy Hendrickson did an advertising campaign event for the business “I Like You” in Minneapolis and made a promotional plan for the company. When at districts, they presented their project alongside their partner to the judges in hopes of moving on to state.

In total, 103 students from Orono presented their projects to the judges with their partners with hopes to move on to state.  Though many students were rushed to get in their finishing touches on the projects and finalize their presentations, Orono had a successful performance at districts this year. In total, 63 students from Orono will be going to the state conference held this March, in downtown Minneapolis.

“Districts was stressful, but overall it was a good experience,” Hendrickson said.  

Similar to districts, students must present their projects to another set of judges at the state conference as well. This year, the state conference competition will be over a span over three days, differing from that of the one day district conference. The state conference determines whether their group will move on to the international conference.  Only the top finishers will get to go to the international conference held this year in Nashville, Tennessee.

The hard work of all the DECA students has paid off so far and they look to have the same successes at the state conference.