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Homestead DECA members compete at State Career Development Conference in Lake Geneva.

Homestead’s representation of DECA, a business and entrepreneurship club, competed last week at State Career Development Conference (SCDC) in Lake Geneva. In preparation for the conference, club members created a prepared project in one of the categories ranging from Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan to Business Operations Research. All projects focused on developing a business proposal to a target audience.

At the state conference, DECA members, Sasha Milbeck, Ari Krazyman, Rachel Writz, Kate Price, seniors, Cameron Blackwell, junior, and Zack Zens and Drew Braaten, sophomores, presented these projects to a judge on their first day of the competition.  Many Homestead members placed in the conference for their projects and the combined role play/test scores. Zens and Braaten took second place for their project for the category of Start Up Business Plan. Blackwell scored fifth for his project for Business Operations Research. “Even though I spent a lot of time on my project, I’ve decided to go to Internationals with the role play as I find entrepreneurship to be more appealing. I’m excited to compete in Internationals for a second time,” Blackwell said.

Later in the afternoon, members had to take a 100-question, 60-minute test in overarching categories including Marketing and Communications, Business Management and Administration, Hospitality and Tourism, and Finance and Accounting. For those working in team decision events, their test scores are averaged for a cumulative score. Price and Writz placed in the top 10 in Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making, Krazyman and Milbeck placed fourth for Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making, Blackwell took third for Entrepreneurship Series Event Role play, and in Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making, Zens and Braaten scored first place.  

In addition to these prepared projects and tests, competitors had to engage in two role plays in more specific categories that fell under the broad divisions. These role plays are case studies given to participants presenting a business problem in their category that needs to addressed. For team decision making, members had thirty minutes to develop a business proposal and ten minutes to present it to a judge. For individual role play, the participant had ten minutes for both development of the solution and the proposal to the judge. “I’m really proud of how well Rachel and I collaborated to come up with solutions to the problems presented to us in the role plays,” Price commented.

Following the state conference, the top seven qualifiers in each category advance to International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Milbeck, Krazyman, Blackwell, Zens and Braaten will all move on to compete at ICDC from April 20 to 24. “Being in DECA has really transformed the way I think about business and has helped me develop crucial lifelong skills,” Milbeck shared.