Mike Horn

DECA members at their state competition.

North’s DECA club participated at DECA’s state competition from March 6 through 8 this year, where 16 of the competing students made the top percentile in their respective categories and earned competency awards, with seniors Luke Anderson, Alex Pstrong, juniors Addison Haan and Victoria Lackner reaching the top 10. Chief among these was senior Cam Vine, who reached the top four in his category of sports and entertainment marketing and qualified for the national DECA competition happening from April 26 through 29 in Orlando, Florida later this semester.

“I’d say perseverance [got me] through,” said Vine. “I’ve had multiple times where I’ve been disappointed on how my competition has gone, and that’s just because I knew that there’s always the opportunity to do better, and I never took the experience for granted, but I knew I could have maybe prepped a little bit better, and after seeing Dylan and Keshav go to nationals, it inspired me to try to go, and I’m grateful that I got the opportunity.”

DECA is a competitive business club for students interested in business and related fields.

“DECA is a competitive club for business students. They compete in either a written event or what’s called a role-play event,” said Eric Bostrand, one of DECA’s advisers. “And they’re judged and tested, typically by some business professionals from around the Chicagoland area.”

DECA competitions generally consist of three different types of competition. Students can decide on which they would like to compete in.

“[They] do a variety of different tests,” said Mike Horn, one of DECA’s advisers. “[Like] cluster tests, which are content-knowledge tests in various fields of business. They do role-plays, where they are given a scenario and have a specific time limit to design a solution to that situation and then present their solution to a judge live in-person. There’s also the potential to do written events, where they do [market] research and business analysis ahead of time and write-up a formal business plan, [which] they send it in for evaluation, and when it’s time for the [physical] competition, they’ll present it in-person to the judges, as well.”

Outside of the competitions, DECA extensively prepares for competitions, often involving practice scenarios and competitions.

“This year, in the fall, we did a practice competition, which was new and very helpful for the students,” said Bostrand. “In January, there’s a sectional event we take almost everyone in the club to, so that gives them a little more practice and preparation.”

Vine competed in the cluster test and roleplay segments of the competition, dealing with scenarios in both entertainment and sports.

“With the sports one, I was general manager of a city mini golf company, and they wanted me to create a mini golf tournament, and market it to get as much teenager participation as possible” said Vine. “With my presentation, I really just tried to go further than what they were asking to expand to numerous target markets and different ages. I think an example of a good idea I came up with in this scenario was going out and advertising to these high schoolers about this big mini golf competition, and the best thing to sell them on is a course [where each] hole has parts of your high school on it, like a little mini representation of [your school]. I think that’d be so cool and just kind of connecting to those [students].”

Due to the personality based element of the competition, impressing the judge is often foremost on the presenter’s mind.

“[You try to] connect with the judge because they can’t talk to you necessarily,” said Vine. “But at the same time, they’re shaking their head, they’re nodding, they’re writing notes down and you can kind of get a sense of things that will appeal to them and make sense to them.”

DECA’s requirements can often go beyond simply succeeding in the competitive categories, however.

“We have meetings [where] we discuss different things that DECA requires of students,” said Horn. “Everything from dress code, because they do have specific professional dress code they have to attend, to etiquette for when we have banquets or meals.”

With sports entertainment and marketing being one of the most popular categories at DECA, Vine faced stiff competition at state.

“I chose [sports and entertainment marketing] because it pertains to what I’m looking to do in college and my future career,” said Vine. “When I started in DECA four years ago, there were so many different opportunities to explore different events and there’s so many different events that fit for different people, and my interest as a freshman was sports, so I really just went, ‘Hey, I’m looking forward to taking some marketing classes I took last year,’ and I began competing in my sophomore year. I went out and I was like ‘You know what, I think this fits for me,’ and I gave it a try and have stuck with it ever since.”

Now, Vine is preparing to compete in the national DECA competition, where he hopes to represent North on a larger stage.

“I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to go to nationals now,” said Vine. “We’ve got a month and a half to prep, so we’re already getting ready. I got a lot of prep to do, but I think it’ll be pretty cool to place at Nationals and represent our school. I think that’d be something that I’d remember for a long time.”