DECA students have been thriving throughout the 2022-23 school year. The students competed at Eastern Michigan University individually or in groups of two where they were given a roleplay scenario by the judges and were asked to fix a problem for a company. Students who competed individually were given 10 minutes, while a group of two were given 30 minutes to prepare. A total of 89 Woodhaven students brought home medals, and 52 outstanding members of DECA competing for districts qualified for the state conference in downtown Detroit with their role plays. combining those with written event winners 85 students have the chance of going to states. A written event is either a 10 or 20 page paper. Mrs. Meyer, WHS DECA Advisor and marketing teacher, says that Woodhaven excels more in these written events, which proved to be correct as she had the most people attend nationals last year in her teaching career with 33 students qualifying for the ICDC Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. With Mrs. Meyer’s abundance of students going to states it is very possible she will be able to break that record again this year. Nathan Blaszczak, who is one of DECA’s presidents, says, “Competing in districts this year in person was a new experience for everyone because it was online last year, I really think competing here really set the tone for what is expected at states in March.”  These students that qualified for states will be competing in Detroit on March 9th, where they will present their projects that they’ve been working on the entire year to a judge over a 3-day span for the chance to go to Orlando, Florida for the ICDC Conference in late April. The Woodhaven School District is excited to see where these exceptional students go from here.