The three day-long State Career Development Conference (SCDC) was held in Lake Geneva, WI this year. From March 5-7, Brookfield Central DECA members partook in this annual DECA competition, where multiple high school DECA chapters from all over the state came to collaborate at this event.

At SCDC, students compete in various business categories, but they also get the opportunities meet fellow Wisconsin DECA board members and learn from many business professionals.

The competition itself consists of two parts: projects and role plays.

Projects often include a paper (that is submitted ahead of time), an oral presentation, and sometimes even an exam. Topics include start-up business plans, fashion merchandising promotion plans, and finance operations – just to name a few.

Role plays, which add life and a personal aspect to the competition, are the more dynamic components. They are scenarios in which competitors must first identify problems and then provide solutions based on their given criteria.

Students have many role play categories (team and individual) to choose from, such as Retail Merchandising, Apparel and Accessories Marketing, and Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making. These role plays are scored based on how well competitors address the performance indicators (which are much like learning targets).

Scenarios that reflect real-life business problems are given on the spot and individual competitors have 10 minutes to prepare (teams have 30 minutes) before presenting the information to a judge.
Competitors are able to earn awards in various ways.

In role plays, competitors can receive a medal for each individual part of the combined role play score: Role Play #1, Role Play #2, and the exam. Wisconsin DECA also awards a medal to the top 10 competitors in each Role Play category.

For projects, if the project includes an exam, students are awarded for their exam as well as a finalist medal if they are in the top 10 in their category. The top 6 competitors in the project category qualify to move onto the international competition. In past years, the top 6 competitors in the role play qualify for internationals, but this year Wisconsin DECA increased it to seven.

From BC, eleven people qualified for ICDC through role plays, and twenty-two people qualified through projects with six double qualifying. Juniors Rajat Mittal(’19) and Pranay Reddy (’19), for example, double qualified by taking first in both their project and their role play (receiving a medal in both role plays and the exam).

BC students say that other than the competition, they really enjoying bonding and having fun with the rest of the chapter. “I really liked doing a project with my friends and it was fun to present something to the judge that we were really proud of. It was also fun to hang out with our chapter and my friends, especially when we made guacamole,” said Sarah Nustad (’19).

There is, of course, work and dedication behind the scenes. BC competitors started preparing for SCDC months ahead. Students started their projects in mid-January and had multiple crucial deadlines along the way that they had to meet in order to have finished their projects on time. At SCDC, there were also late-night presentation-practice sessions as well as role play practice.

Competitors also spent long days filled with presentations, role plays, and testing, opening/closing sessions, and awards. The award ceremony encompassed numerous speeches and recognitions in addition to the actual award-giving.

Twenty-three Lancers will be representing Wisconsin at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, this April. Go BC DECA!