Bound for Provincials: DECA Success!

Written by: Ava Puhlmann and Vanessa Vamvakaris 

Photos by: Ms. Sian and Mrs. Akbar

Contributors: Ms. Sian

This year marks the first time Blakelock has run DECA in 4 years. Led by Ms. Sian and Mrs. Akbar, President Gautam Patel and Vice President Stefan Antic helped build it up from the ground. They started their search in September for eager students willing to help run DECA. A team of five executives was created, and others eagerly joined. Meetings were held on Fridays at break, where they practiced case studies and exam preparation. 

DECA is an international business competition where students can compete for awards, scholarships, opportunities and more. Consisting of “mock” business case presentations as well as written reports, DECA has six main categories in various business practices, and several subcategories in each. These main categories include Business Management and Administration, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Hospitality and Tourism, Marketing, Personal Financial Literacy, and Principle Events which are meant for grade 9 students. Students can select their method and category of competition and then begin to complete three steps to the competition: regionals, provincials, and finally internationals. Students can do this in teams of 1 or 2, striving to advance to the following rounds.

To begin the preparation, students first began to study for their written exams, which were held on October 30 during second period.

“Our DECA Exec team worked hard each week to support the entire DECA team through our weekly meetings full of practice tests & practice role plays,” said Ms. Sian. 

Each student took the exam after weeks of practice. The exam mark made up 50% of their final mark, which helped determine whether they moved on from the Regional round of competition. Students took the test assigned in their selected clusters, and received their results a few days after the written test component.

The in person oral competition was held on November 26. Over 40 of Blakelock’s DECA students visited Brock University to compete in the regional Oral round of the business competition. The competition at Brock made up the other 50% of their final mark: the roleplay, where students were required to present solutions to a mock business case after only 10-30 minutes of preparation. Individual events competed in the morning, while group events competed in the afternoon. 

From the roughly forty students that competed, eight qualified for provincials, five from grade 11, three from grade 9. Logan Gomez qualified for the only individual event in the marketing communications section. Ava Puhlmann and Vanessa Vamvakaris qualified for a team event in the travel and tourism section, and McKayla Miller and Christian Kristo qualified for another team event in the hospitality and tourism section, making up the 5 grade 11 qualifiers. Of the three grade 9 qualifiers, Jonah Lim-Tran qualified in the principles of finance section, Premleene Bakshi qualified in the principles of hospitality and tourism section, and Mahathi Sivakumar qualified in the principles of marketing sector. 

DECA provincial qualifier McKayla Miller said, “It was a great experience! I feel like I learned a lot about the business world and made new connections.”

The Blakelock team had great successes in the event. As the regionals team comes to a close, we’re looking forward to seeing how the provincials team does in February. Good luck Tigers!