This past weekend 41 DECA members competed at the 4A State Leadership Conference held at the Broadmoor Hotel. 36 members and 14 teams made it to finals with 9 members qualifying for the International Career Development Conference this April in Atlanta.
DECA president, senior Abby McPherson has participated in the club all four years and is beyond ecstatic about the team’s progress and success at state this year.
“I think we did really well, we had 14 out of the 36 make it to nationals which is pretty impressive considering we had kinda a wild year with COVID and multiple teachers this year. I think we’ve been really successful at adapting to our circumstances,” said McPherson.
Overall, Littleton seemed to have sweeping wins across the board with two state champions Nick Hopper and Aden Becker. On top of this, Anika Bagal, Ashlyn Farnham, Bex Batemburg, and Catherine May placed third, Zach Long and Luke DuMoulin placed fourth, and Lane Greenly placed fifth.
“I thought that Bex did a really great job in her apparel and accessories event, not only did she make it to nationals it’s her first year doing DECA and one of the hardest events you can be a part of,” said McPherson.
On Monday morning the qualifiers figured out who made it to finals in their written events and who made it in their role plays on Tuesday. It seems that making it to finals in written events is typically the most common event people qualify in. During the conference, state qualifiers had to pitch their ideas to judges and if their pitch is good enough they make it to state.
“Typically, everyone who does a written event goes to state which we did on Sunday, I did my written event with Morgan Kelly. Role-plays are business scenarios that you have to think of on the spot and you don’t get to prepare for them as you do for the written events. We found out who went to state in our role plays on Tuesday. After finals, we had a closing ceremony where we were told if we made it to nationals or not, only about half of the finalists make it to nationals every year in each event. We only had one team qualify for state which was Zach Long and his partner Luke,” Said McPherson.
The State conference began on Sunday, the 27th of February, and went through Tuesday the 1st. Qualifiers had the opportunity to stay at the Beardmore hotel during their time at state which added a luxurious aspect to the state trip that was thoroughly enjoyed by all the attendees.
“It was super fun that I got to go with my friends and stay at the Broadmoor. We got there on Sunday morning around 7:30 am and did our written events. We stayed in the original building of the Broadmoor, it was a little complicated because we got there super early and couldn’t get into our rooms until 5:30 pm…other than that it was an amazing experience they served us two lunches which were like 3-course meals,” said McPherson.
The Broadmoor wasn’t the only thing McPherson and the other state qualifiers enjoyed about the state conference, it also turned out to be a great opportunity to meet new people and practice speaking skills which can be beneficial later in life.
“You’re gonna get as much out of DECA as you put into it, it’s a really fun club and it’s a great opportunity no matter what you want to do in life. It gives you speaking skills and provides a bunch of connections to other kids you wouldn’t normally connect with. I love business so DECA was an amazing club for me to be a part of. Honestly, being a part of DECA has been one of the best choices I’ve made throughout high school, I’d highly recommend it to other kids,” said McPherson.