Perry DECA competed in the State Career Development Conference (SCDC) on Feb. 25-27 at the AZ Grand Resort. While the students were at SCDC, they competed in marketing role play scenarios as well as presenting prepared presentations in front of judges. The competitors took part in leadership and networking events. They also had to complete a marketing knowledge test prior to the competition. Students who qualified during SCDC will be heading to Atlanta, GA for the International Competition (ICDC) on Apr. 22-27. 

While at the Arizona DECA State Competition, DECA won the following awards: Community Service Award (most community service hours), Century Award (100+ members), Chapter Membership Award (2nd largest in AZ), Chapter Advocacy Award, Puma Den Food-Bronze, and Puma Den Retail-Silver. Deca is one of four Arizona schools to win the National DECA Advocacy Award. 

The purpose of DECA/marketing is to teach students about business strategies while in high school. During the marketing role play competition, students were given scenarios that they had to respond to. “A lot of [students] studied their marketing terms so that they would do the best in their role plays and hit the performance indicators,” said junior DECA student Adison Derbas. 

Some students prepared a powerpoint presentation for the judges. “I did a written event with a group, where we just planned a powerpoint presentation about a research project on a company we studied,” said junior DECA student Hailey Derbas. The students with the presentation ran through it beforehand with DECA advisor Robert Lange. Students with the role playing scenarios studied their vocabulary terms. 

Sophomore Taylor Relvas competed in a hospitality event, where he and his team presented a business proposal about hospitality and tourism. “We did vocabulary tests [to prepare], because a lot of it was vocabulary and just knowing what the prompts meant. It was probably the hardest part.” 

For some students, winning was the best part of the competition. “We presented a business proposal about hospitality and tourism. I got third in my category, so winning was probably my favorite part,” said Relvas. 

The DECA students enjoyed supporting each other. “My favorite part was the award ceremony, because when someone would win an award, we would all jump up and scream,” said Adison Derbas. 

“My favorite part is seeing the reaction of the students when they are recognized on stage as a reward for all their hard work,” said Lange. 

Hailey Derbas, Sahdie Hernandez, Adison Derbas, Ram Karuppiah, Braden Bassett, Jacob Brown, Maddox Turner, Emma Aelits, Xavier Ortiz, Taylor Relvas, Ainsley Reese, Samantha Armstrong, Stella Jones, Cooper Lieurance, Noah Kang, Katelin Mascari, and Emily Larson all qualified for ICDC and will be going Georgia come April.