DECA, a business club at Homestead, takes on Disneyworld at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) this April, with Homestead students William Bai, junior, and Aurnob Ghose, freshman, competing for the DECA Glass.

Advised by Brandn Lindsey, a business teacher, and captained by senior Katherine Wasserman, DECA aims to prepare aspiring young entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.

Lindsey explains, “In order to qualify for ICDC, students must place top seven in their event, compared to the 20-30 students they are competing against.”

Wasserman, who has been involved in DECA for three years, explains how a typical competition looks.

“First, you take a cluster exam with 100 questions. For districts, you have 90 minutes to complete it, while for SCDC, you only have an hour. After that, you must complete two roleplays, where you receive a case study and must solve a problem within it and present your solution to a judge. Your overall composite score is out of 300 points.”

In this year’s state competition, Bai and Ghose advanced to nationals and will fly to Orlando in late April.

“I participate in the Accounting Applications event. This event has two components: a Finance Exam, which consists of broader-scale finance and business-related questions, and two role-plays, where we are given a scenario and time to prepare before presenting to a judge. The scenario may ask us to analyze a company’s financial statements, propose a solution to an accounting-related problem, or explain accounting concepts,” Bai shares.

Lindsey will accompany the members on this trip. He says he looks forward to these big competitions each year.

“It’s fun to interact with kids outside of school, to see them not as students, like enjoying lunch at Qdoba or at Disney, to see kids outside of confine of the four homestead walls, and its fun to see them work hard for something they don’t get a grade for. It’s cool to see kids care about stuff and there is pride in success.”