Sweat drips off of the DECA participants as they present in front of the judges. They have been practicing all year for this moment.
DECA participants start the year by choosing the project that they think will be the best to present to the judges this upcoming year.
“My group and I chose buying and merchandising operations research,” senior Landen Wilson said. “We chose this because it is a written project, and we don’t have to come up with things on the spot, we can just memorize our presentation.”
The project Wilson chose is just one of many. The participants have a wide variety from 10 different categories and 59 projects. They also have the option to work alone or in a group.
“I did integrated marketing campaign-service,” junior Kaitlyn Murphy said. “I enjoyed it because it was fun to make marketing plans for a business. I am changing to financial literacy because I want to learn more about saving money.”
Every year, the DECA participants take their projects and present them at states. This year, the state competition is in March of 2026. Participants spend a lot of time practicing their presentations for a chance to win glass and go to internationals in Florida.
“I think I am doing the project management event financial literacy,” junior Sarah Leeseberg said. “I am going to spend a lot of time on my project to perfect it for competition. Also, I am going to practice presenting, so everything goes smoothly when I present for states.”
As they spend a year preparing, the DECA participants can only hope that they wow the judges and get the glass.
