Wisconsin DECA Direct

Here at Hamilton Sussex, our members are super excited to go to SCDC in Lake Geneva! Everyone in our chapter works hard and gives plenty of effort to ensure that they can do their best in competition. We always make sure to properly utilize our available resources to best prepare us before February. Our chapter officers do an amazing job of helping fellow competitors by giving advice and answering any questions they may have. Their experience in DECA allows them to give competitors the best opportunity to advance based on their previous competitions. Officers give great tips on how to improve roleplays, be more presentable, and how to get better test scores. 

We are also taking plenty of practice tests, making sure to look over what we got wrong and using former knowledge to answer questions. We also make sure to enhance our vocabulary to make possible test questions easier to answer. We hold weekly test prep in our advisor’s room every Tuesday, where people can work together on tests and difficult questions. There are review games we play as a group- either on Kahoot, Quizlet, or Blooket, which is fun for everyone! This helps us feel more confident in our test taking ability before we compete. 

As state approaches, members are also working hard on their projects by getting feedback from our advisor, Mrs. Fields. She gives us valuable advice on what we can improve in all aspects of competition to better our chances and makes sure to include everyone when addressing important state information. Our advisor holds competition meetings weeks in advance so everyone is on the same page and is aware of what to do. These meetings include slides about appropriate dress, day by day schedules, and other details for members to know before the date. 

Our members also help judge at the middle school’s DECA competition, which helps us understand roleplays from the judging point of view and give feedback to middle school competition participants. Our chapter learns from them and they learn from us, enhancing both schools in their DECA skills. We have been continuing our monthly social events, which allow us to interact more as a chapter outside of competition prep. For example, we just held a gingerbread making event after school in December and had an ice cream social in November. These events allow us to get to know each other better and also help us get closer as SCDC approaches.  This makes members more comfortable to ask each other for advice. Our community allows everyone to be comfortable sharing their strengths and building each other up in preparation for competition. By giving solid effort and using valuable resources, our chapter is doing its best to prepare its members for SCDC.