The Minnesota State DECA Conference (SCDC) took place from Sunday, March 2 until Tuesday, March 4. DECA is an activity that allows students to demonstrate their business and interpersonal skills via role plays, interviews and sales pitches. This year, 117 Owatonna students qualified and attended SCDC. Students qualified based on their performance at the District competition held in January. SCDC allows students to compete with the brightest business minds across Minnesota in their respective events. Top performers are awarded the chance to compete at the International DECA Conference held in Orlando later this year.
There are multiple rounds of competition at SCDC. On Sunday, all students take a 100 question test that falls into different categories depending on their competitive event. For example, students competing in Marketing Role Plays take the Marketing Test. Prepared events, such as sales demos or interviews, also compete on Sunday. To finish out the night, there is an opening ceremony that officially kicks off SCDC.
On Monday, role play competitions are held throughout the day. Competition begins early in the morning and ends in the middle of the afternoon. Students that are competing in team role plays only have one event. Students competing in individual role plays present twice to different judges. Then, once all the competition is done for the day, the preliminary round award ceremony is held on Monday night. Students who qualify for finals are announced as well as those who finished in the top 25 for their test score.
Tuesday is when the final round of competition takes place at SCDC. For those who qualified for finals, they compete once again on Tuesday morning. For students who did not qualify for finals, they are done competing. Owatonna DECA transports students to the Mall of America if they are not competing on Tuesday. Students are able to spend a few hours shopping, getting food or relaxing at MOA. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, the final awards ceremony takes place. Students who placed in the top 10 of their respective events are called on the stage. From there, the top 5 receive trophies and earn their spot at the International DECA Conference. Owatonna had three top finishers: seniors Alia Kubicek and Katrina Ethen and junior Blake Farris.
This was Farris’ first year in DECA. He competed in the Principles of Finance Individual Role Play. Going into the final awards ceremony, Farris felt as though he had done well enough to make it to the International competition. After finding out he qualified, Farris was “super excited”. Even though it was his first year competing, Farris enjoyed his DECA experience.
Farris said, “DECA is amazing because of what you learn, the people you meet and the experiences you make at State and Districts”.
Mr. Bradley Scharber is Owatonna DECA’s advisor. This year was his fourth year attending SCDC and his third being the lead advisor. While at SCDC, Mr. Scharber’s role is to arrange and distribute students’ supplies, be the chair for the Innovation Plan event and help out students with anything they need. He enjoys watching students compete at their events more than anything at SCDC.
Mr. Scharber said, “It’s just exciting to see if students’ hard work paid off and they made it to finals or not. I see a lot of passion from students”.
Over the past few years, Owatonna DECA has been having positive results at SCDC. Mr. Scharber attributes that success to the preparations students make prior to competing.
Mr. Scharber explained, “Naturally as we’ve grown as a chapter, students have taken more initiative on their own to prepare…We’ve seen more students making it to finals, which would indicate that those [preparations] are truly working”.
SCDC is hosted at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis. Students stay in this hotel and compete in the ballrooms on the first two floors. This means students from multiple schools stay in close proximity. Students from Owatonna enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people.
OHS senior Cole Kruschke said, “One thing I am mainly looking forward to is seeing all the people from different cities, how they compete, how people prepare and seeing lots of people in the lobby”. This was Kruschke’s first time attending SCDC.
Students from other schools echoed this same feeling. Aiden Kanitz, a Sauk Rapids Rice High School sophomore, competed at SCDC for the first time this year.
Other than competing in his Human Resources Management Role Play, Kanitz enjoyed “hanging out with friends, seeing all the different people here and just meeting new people”. Kanitz did not qualify for the International DECA Competition, but is eager to try again next year.
Overall, Owatonna DECA had a successful SCDC this year with multiple International qualifiers. Other than the business competition, students from other schools and OHS alike enjoy meeting people from other schools. Mr. Scharber is the advisor and plays a critical role in the success of Owatonna at SCDC.
