On April 30th, Rajat Mittal(‘19) and Pranay Reddy(‘19) took 2nd place at the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida. They competed in the Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making event which is one of the most competitive DECA events in high school DECA. In a team role-play event, the members are highly dependent on each other as a competitor by no circumstance can compete alone.

A major portion of Mittal and Reddy’s success can be attributed to their impeccable teamwork. Mittal and Reddy became partners sophomore year at state and continued to be partners for the next 3 years for both projects and role plays. “We are able to leverage each other’s strengths effectively. Rajat is better at presenting the information, and I was better at coming up with ideas. So I’d take the lead during planning, and he’d take the lead during the presentation.” claimed Reddy.

Reddy and Mittal have seen immense success throughout their years in DECA. Sophomore year, they placed 4th at state in Sports and Entertainment Promotional Plan in Lake Geneva. Junior year, they placed 1st in Sports and Entertainment TDM and 1st in Sports and Entertainment Promotional Plan. Senior year, Reddy and Mittal placed third in the Integrated Marketing Campaign: Service and 1st in the role-play category which did not surprise the rest of the chapter, to say the least.

“Getting third was a blessing in disguise because that is what made us decide
to do our role play at ICDC” Mittal claimed. Finally, they received their big moment of victory and received 2nd place in the Sports and Entertainment TDM category.

Aside from all the competition Mittal and Reddy have become good friends through their time in DECA. They met each other sophomore year when they were in the same lab group. They decided that they work well together and could be good DECA partners. When asked about his partner Mittal said, “Pranay will be a good partner if you ever need him. He will work hard to get the desired result.” Reddy claimed that “Rajat is really smart and a fun guy to be around, and we have become better friends through DECA.”

The 2019 ICDC competition was held in Orlando, Florida. As excited as Reddy and Mittal were for Disney, it is safe to say nerves were also definitely present. Both partners did not have many expectations going into the competition. “I was pretty nervous going into the ICDC preliminary competition because we had not prepared too much” claimed Reddy.

However, after the preliminary competition, both partners felt good about the performance as they felt the judge seemed happy with their role plays, however, they still did not expect they would be in the finals. “We were just trying to get up on stage,” said Mittal. Then the moment finally came where they announced Rajat Mittal and Pranay Reddy as finalists on the morning of April 30. Reddy said, “It was exciting to be a finalist as I had not been a finalist at ICDC the prior year.” Mittal and Reddy had to compete within 30 minutes after receiving their finalist medals in which both partners were content as they felt that they did the best that could have done.

Then later that afternoon, the moment came where they were announced as 2nd place in the world in their category. When asked how it felt to be second place in the world, Reddy said, “It was really cool to place at ICDC as it was my last DECA competition ever.”

DECA has also provided Mittal and Reddy with many joyful memories. Mittal reflected on his funniest DECA moment, “During my freshman year, we were all sitting in a room after curfew with Pranav rapping for us. Ms. Fisher walked in to conduct room checks and instantly Coach Kennedy and Mr. Miocic jumped underneath the bed.”

Mittal and Reddy have left a huge impact on the Brookfield Central DECA chapter both through their success through competition and their leadership positions as Co-Vice Presidents of Business Partnerships. Mittal reflected on his high school DECA experience and the impact it has had on him, “It has very fulfilling, and I’ve been more successful than I thought I would be.”