Carter Krenke ‘23 and Erik Jung ‘24 placed second overall at the Districts competition for their written Innovation Plan on Principles of Hospitality & Tourism.
With 13 students, Blake DECA’s team pales in size compared to large public schools competing against them. Yet, at their District Competition held Jan. 7-9 at Jefferson High School in Bloomington, Blake proved membership numbers aren’t everything.
Co-President, along with Julia Jung ‘23, Josh Smith ‘23 noted, “I think probably ¾ of the people who competed ended up going to state in one of the events they competed in which is compared to other schools, Blake has a really small team but we do really well.” While Molly Seidel ‘24, Vice President, explains that numbers have fluctuated over the years, she agrees that holistically the club has remained the same, dominating at competitions and receiving success.
DECA, despite being a local club, is also a national organization. As Smith explains, “we do different competitions against other schools, as individuals or groups of two or three, that relate to business.” At said competitions, DECA hosts additional events for students interested in business.
While DECA begins meeting upon return from summer break, districts are the first real competition. Thus club members spend months preparing. Seidel explains, “A lot of the preparation comes with explaining how the club works to new members because it is a bit confusing at the start…In my past three years, we’ve done mock roleplays prior to the competitions. We give overviews of how to write written events to those who are writing specific events.” However, she adds “most progress that you can make in your skill level in DECA is at the competitions and I think that the more competitions you are in, the more comfortable you become sitting in front of a judge.”
Written events and role plays are two events that Blake encourages its members to compete in. Smith describes written plans as “ten to twenty pages in length and usually have some sort of 15 minute presentation when we go to our DECA event dates and those array from being business plans or marketing campaigns that students will write.” Students are granted 10 to 30 minutes, given a business prompt and present their ideas and solutions in front of a judge.
While to many, the months of preparation seem overwhelming, Erik Jung ‘24 notes, “I just spread [the 10 pages] out over two months, I did it whenever I could.” This way, his extra work felt much more manageable. As a testament to his success, Jung, along with Carter Crenke ‘23, placed second overall at the tournament.
As a leader, Seidel explains, “I want to continue emphasizing lower classmen participation [be]cause they are the future of the club at Blake. And, I want to continue preparing everyone well for the competitions so they can feel confident when they show up on competition day.”
