When people at Brookfield Central hear the name DECA, they usually don’t think competition or service. In fact, they don’t really know what to think. The organization has so many different aspects and various events that it is involved in, mainly concerning business partnerships, community service, and competition. Competition? In what?

DECA includes contests in an array of business centered categories. These include marketing, finance, hospitality, business administration, and entrepreneurship. The DECA leadership team has been working extremely hard to prepare all of their participants for competition. Maya Benhamo, the Vice President of Competitive Excellence, said, “We’re really excited to see how we perform at districts. I’m hoping that we have just as great of a showing this year.” She refers to last year, when DECA set a chapter record for the 43 students that competed at state. This year there are 75 members competing at districts – this will contribute to the number of people that will be able to go to state. Once there, the competitors will be working towards winning a spot to ICDC, the International Career Development Conference. Brookfield Central DECA also attended mini districts at UW-Whitewater, a practice event which allowed many new members in DECA to get a feel for what competition is like. Because this was just a practice competition, there were only awards for each school.

DECA members have also been working on aspects of their club other than just competition. Pertaining to community service, they have had a couple of major events since the beginning of the year. They participated in Trick-Or-Can, held to collect food from members of the community in order to help supply a local food pantry. Evidently, DECA isn’t only about partaking in tournaments and competitions; members are also involved in several activities to aid their community. Nevertheless, the DECA leadership team is looking forward to what they can achieve this year.