The DECA club at Camas High School has made several prominent achievements over the last four years. With 140 members, DECA continues to accomplish great things day by day. Three officers in DECA have come together to discuss their years of experience and enlighten those who find themselves both interested in joining and those who have no clue what the club is.
Monica Chang, President of DECA, has made many remarkable achievements throughout her years at CHS. Among these are her accomplishments in the DECA program. However, Chang had not always been set on being apart of DECA. In an interview with her, she claimed, “I joined my sophomore year, and so I definitely was not planning on joining at all.” It wasn’t until a presentation was given that she found an interest in the program. She now says, “I have not had a regret since. It has definitely been the best decision I’ve made in high school. ”Through DECA, Chang worked on a project with Squeeze and Grind where she made a social media marketing plan during her sophomore year. Both this year and last year, Cheng has been involved in going to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) with the Girls Represent project, which is set on encouraging middle school and high school girls to pursue career fields that often lack female representation. In the next five years, Chang hopes to find herself somewhere in the field of business and technology, “perhaps entrepreneurship and biotech,” and that no matter what, the skills she has learned in DECA will help her wherever she goes.
Skylar Becerra, Vice President of DECA, went into her first year rather clueless about what it was, mentioning, “I kind of joined on the fly. In eighth grade, I had no clue what it was. I just saw marketing one in the forecasting book and knew absolutely nothing about it… I never looked back though; I mean, I got invested in it, got mentored by older kids, found the community in it, and just fell in love with it and stuck with it ever since then. This year will be Becerra’s third time at ICDC. Reflecting on her competition, “The best I’ve done was sophomore year. I made top ten at internationals for my business operations research project on a local business and developing a social media and mobile and local media promotional plan basically for that business.” Since then she’s taken part in two chapter projects, along with the Earn and Learn project, for which she helped generate over $6,000 in revenue over the course of a few months. Becerra’s plan is to find herself somewhere in the realm of business and marketing.
Caden Wengler, Director of Promotion for DECA, had a slightly different first encounter with DECA, stating, “For me, my friends kind of were like, oh you should give it a try. So for my sophomore year, I had an open class in my schedule so I joined it not knowing to expect. This year will be Wengler’s first time at ICDC, along with double qualifying for state all three years he has been in DECA. Wengler is most fond of his Black Rock Project, reasoning that “you’re able to conduct promotional activities in the community and they’ve shown great successes. I create a lot of not only mentors but friends at Black Rock because of it.” His promotion team brought in over twenty-one hundred dollars profit. Wengler has no idea what he’ll be doing in the next five years, but hopes that wherever he finds himself he will be able to inspire others in the world.
Each officer highly recommends DECA to new and current students, debating that even if someone isn’t invested in marketing, being able to effectively communicate is going to be a constant goal in life regardless of where their paths lead. Plus, it never hurts to be able to pitch one’s self or a product. The three of them together agreed upon one final statement made by Wengler: “Don’t hesitate to take a chance or take a risk,” or one might miss out on a great opportunity.
