Woodhaven DECA competed at the DECA State Career Development Conference, which took place at Huntington Center in Detroit from March 13th to 15th. Students competed with their written event projects, which they had worked on since September, or competed with a role-play.
Students started preparing their presentations for states in February. March 4th, DECA has business professionals come in to watch their presentations to get feedback on their presentations. Students got some feedback from these professionals to know what they could improve to make their presentations the best they could be.
On March 13th, students left the school dressed professionally to leave for Huntington Center. When students arrived, there was an opening ceremony meeting, and then students competing in written events were given their scheduled times of presenting. Sophia Varkas, a senior DECA member at Woodhaven High School, says, “I feel tremendously prepared, as Mrs. Meyer and Mr. Taylor have had us practice every day in front of different people, allowing us to receive different feedback. I am excited to present tomorrow and feel very prepared.”
Once students arrive at the Huntington Center, written event students have an opening session to welcome them to states and give them a rundown of the day, and then the students get their competition times. Students then competed for the rest of the day then attended the Detroit Pistons game later that evening.
On Saturday Woodhaven DECA attended the grand awards session. Woodhaven DECA has 20 students qualify for their written papers, and two students qualify for their roleplays. Jessica Lyons and Anyah Johnson were the two Woodhaven Students who qualified for their roleplays. It is very rare to have students qualify for roleplays as much as written events so it was a very exciting moment when those two students qualified.
