DECA What? Kalaheo Alumna Finds Career and Passion Through Business Club 

Distributive Education Clubs of America, better known as DECA, is a program pertaining to the growth of business skills of students. The club focuses on marketing, hospitality, finance, and management in order to prepare future entrepreneurs and other business leaders. For decades at Kalaheo, DECA was an organization that gave students interested in business the tools they needed to succeed in their career path. However, Kalaheo no longer offers the program. This may be stopping students from strengthening a skill or like Class of 2006 alumna, Kimberlyn Racoma, experienced– finding a passion. Mrs. Racoma, now a business owner herself, shares the importance of DECA and how it impacted and continues to impact her life. “ We learned how to run our store, handle money, fundraise, pitch, and overall hone in on what it means to run a business. It's actually what led me into wanting to own my own business today,” Mrs. Racoma said. “What I do now is virtual assisting. 

I get to support others and support their dreams. I basically take a lot of the tasks they don't have time for, they don't know how to do or they just don’t want to do and I do it. It's great because I get to be almost a little partner in their business. To help them see their business through and achieve any kind of goals that they have,” Mrs. Racoma explained. But it was more than just learning business skills inside the classroom that benefited students, those within DECA were then able to showcase those skills through competitions. “The cool thing was, Mrs. Anahu, who was the teacher, taught us to compete in different competitions on Oahu. So we would actually create business plans, we would learn about business plans, and learn about marketing. 

To create basically a mock business and try to pitch it to judges. Usually, the judges were influential people in the community. It would usually be people like the president of First Hawaiian Bank or Bank of Hawaii– business owners in the community and we would get to meet these people. It was usually like a three-day competition. It was a lot of fun, I got to meet a lot of students in a lot of different places, it was such a rewarding experience and I really did learn a lot. I learned how to speak to an audience and I learned what professional etiquette was.”Ms. Racoma also shed light on another important skill of the program, asking for public assistance. “Ms. Anahu, also taught us to ask for community support. So when we would go to competitions, there was a little fundraising”. But it was primarily the action of learning to involve the community. So we would write letters. Primarily it was to teach us how to speak to the company and how to ask for support and also trying to get us to pitch our business. 

“This is what we’re doing, we are from Kalaheo. This is our business. Can you help us by reviewing our work, or can you donate to us?” “Another big factor within the DECA program was the student-run store upstairs located in L-building. It was like it was our own business! It was our own little store, everyone hung out there. “It was a good resource. For the better snacks too! The cafeteria used to sell Snickers ice cream bars and apple pies, but DECA had cup noodles, chips, and sodas. Before school, I think it was at 7 or 7: 15, you could go to DECA and buy your breakfast. Kids could get breakfast burritos etc. and then after school for another 45 minutes or so, you could buy snacks. It was really cool because in the morning the teacher would run it unless she had volunteers from that first period. Then after school, we would all have a rotation of who would work that day”.Ms. Racoma talks about how the profits from the store helped them. 

“We learned cash handling. Then the money went to the program. It helped us get to competitions. It helped us do whatever we needed to do.” And while Mrs. Racoma graduated from Hawaii Pacific University in 2011 with a degree in business marketing, she encourages students who may not even consider entrepreneurship to consider it. “A lot of people, a lot of kids then– I'm not sure about now– they don’t really think about running their own business. It was always go to college, get a degree, get a good job and that's it. The idea of running my own business being able to create whatever I wanted, and making other people happy with whatever I was making – whatever that is, was really fun for me. I liked the professionalism– I loved it all. 

My career path started in high school! It has all carried continuously from my experiences at Kalaheo,” Mrs. Racoma said with a smile. Ms. Racoma ends the interview with this positive message. “DECA was so rewarding and I hope to see it come back and maybe in some capacity be a part of it! But I owe a lot because if it wasn’t for DECA, and my mom putting me in it, who is also an alumna, I wouldn’t be where I am now. She graduated in 1985. If it wasn't for her and the class being available, I wouldn't have the foundation I have today and the interest that I have today.”