Walking out of districts and flying into nationals, DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) led nine Loy Norrix students to Orlando, Florida to compete in the DECA national conference. 

The LN DECA team attended the 2023 DECA International Career Development Conference which took place Apr. 22-25 in Orlando, Florida where more than 22 thousand students from all over the country competed.

“It’s a one of a kind unique experience because going from districts to states to nationals is a really great experience and rewarding. This helps to build confidence, and when going through nationals, it makes you feel you’re knowledgeable to achieve something and inspires your future career choices,” said senior Jay’don Kelley.

DECA members who competed in nationals included: Aliah Ward, Ari Johnson, Wendy Miedema, Max Berlin, Sequoya Morning, Amady Mboup, Kameran Long, Jaydon Kelley and Lauren Dunning.

“We had nine students who headed to nationals. They got there a number of ways, most of them being presentations, tests, or developmental skills with leadership and a lot of hard work,” said DECA advisor and teacher, Atiba Ward.

In order to qualify for nationals, students have to go to districts. Students can make their way to DECA Nationals through different events they have chosen. After the event is completed and scored, they can win different medals and/or plaques that will qualify them for nationals.

“I went to nationals with my group that included Max Berlin and Wendy Miedema. We started a retail operation in which we basically made T-shirts and sold them at basketball games and other school related events,” said sophomore Ari Johnson. “We wrote a 50 page paper about it, and presented to a board about the different aspects of us buying and selling the T-shirts.” 

Becoming a part of DECA is a step students can take to move towards reaching their highest potential. Operations like the one that Johnson’s group started can lend well to future careers.

“My only goal this year was to go to nationals and I did that. I also wanted to use DECA to decide my career path and goal, and so this year’s DECA helped me cement what I want to do in college next year,” said senior Wendy Miedema. 

DECA is a club that can inspire you to succeed in different categories such as entrepreneurship, marketing and business. It can also allow you to meet people from all over the country and gain new experiences.

“DECA can inspire you in many ways to achieve different careers. I think DECA is more than being business oriented: you can do community awareness projects and stuff like that,”  said senior Jay’don Kelley. “I recommend people join DECA because it’s the best club a high school could ever offer. There’s not many other clubs that allow you to travel like this one. I think that DECA can get you through college and potentially raise your career. This is one of the best experiences you could ever have.”