KCI at DECA Provincials

Written by: Vee Perez

For the third year since the pandemic, KCI’s DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) went to the provincial competition in Toronto in early February. There, students performed written exams and oral competitions to rank among thousands of other students. The winners from KCI, Chelsea and Issac, were in the top 20 overall, while Chiamaka placed in the top 15.

DECA isn’t an easy club to describe, but staff sponsor Ms. Brown shares that “[it is] an organization to not only prepare future business leaders, but also about building relationships with people.” Teachers provide the members with practice exams, cases, best responses, and more, but the club has a focus of senior club members teaching other students what they know. When approaching events, DECA Executive Angela Cummins said students review to understand the concepts of their chosen cluster. These ‘clusters’ include topics like  finance, marketing, and entrepreneurship, among others. But within that, there are sub-clusters. The first stop is regionals, or students can take an online multiple-choice test to qualify for provincials. “It’s a hundred questions, and you have 70 to 75 minutes. It’s really fast,” Cummins explained.

So, what does going to provincials look like? The weekend takes place in the Sheraton Hotel in Toronto with oral competitions in front of judges and written exams. Participants have dinners with their team, as well as with many other teams. Cummins commented on how different it is every year because of the constant stream of new people. Surprisingly, you don’t have to make it into the top ten overall during provincials to qualify for internationals. You could hunker down at a stock market game that requires you to keep a company’s stock price up. This takes place from September to December. 

KCI’s DECA is made up of hard-working students honing their abilities in business. Congratulations to KCI’s ranking winners!