Audrey Park, staff writer

Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) attended a state conference from Thursday, Feb. 6 to Sunday, Feb. 9 at the Anaheim Marriott. The conference consisted of over 1000 DECA members from over 60 California high schools competing in marketing, hospitality, finance and business management events.
DECA co-president Olivia Koshy placed third in the Emerging Leadership Assessment, junior Aaron Nehmadi placed second in one of his role plays for Business Service Marketing and junior Austin Mack placed second in his Accounting Applications.
“The conference overall went great, as students were given the opportunity to test their skills in their competitive event,” Koshy said. “Austin Mack’s excellent work automatically qualifies him for the International competition that will take place in Atlanta, Georgia in May of this year, giving him the chance to represent Beverly Hills at the international level.”
According to Charles Stansbury, co-director of DECA, the conference gave the team a lot of insight on how DECA clubs from other schools perform, especially those from schools in Northern California, where “it’s a lot larger and more competitive.”
“It was good to see what DECA is like in other places. It gave us a lot of ideas on how we can improve ourselves,” Stansbury said. “What really stood out was that we got to experience other schools there. We talked to them and learned how we could improve to get bigger and better.”
DECA co-director Jarvis Turner also believed that the conference was a “great learning experience” for both the younger and older members of DECA.
“It gives them something to drive for and look forward to for next year,” Turner said. “Our future plans are to grow and to become one of the bigger chapters in California and win some more competitions.”
Although the state conference was the last competition of the year for DECA as a group, the team, according to Koshy, “does not end when competitions end.”
“We continue to strive to mold well rounded students who are not only business savvy, but also community oriented,” Koshy said. “We plan to take the rest of the year to focus on raising funds for our chapter’s future conference, competitions, and resources expenses along with hosting community service projects, while continuing to build the bond that has been formed between members.”

Stansbury believes that DECA is a “great program” for students to be a part of and hopes to keep improving the DECA team at Beverly for the future.

“DECA does a great job in preparing students for what they’re going to see when they graduate from high school or college,” Stansbury said. “They’re very specific in the fields and they do a great job in getting professionals from that field to work with our students. It’s also a great resource for students because it provides real life applications of all of the subjects you have at school.”

DECA students will continue to meet every Monday during lunch in room 274 to discuss future fundraising and community service events.