DECA Conference Interview + Recap

One of our well-known extracurriculars here on campus is DECA. DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America. We sat down with Kayla Donavan, Kaya Novack, Eva Ritsner, and Anjolie Galestan, a few of their students, and interviewed them on their time at the SoCal District Conference, a competition that the students participated in on January 9-11.

What is your role in DECA? Can you, like, briefly describe it? 


Kayla Donavan: Yes, so I am the president of DECA, and I manage all of the spreadsheet projects, and just making sure that every member feels included and comfortable. And I also

plan a lot of the events that we do.

What is the DECA SoCal District Conference? 

Eva Ritsner: The SoCal District Conference is a conference for the SoCal districts. It's for people who are in SoCal, and it's a competition where people present either their written projects or participate in role plays. There are other district conferences for the other districts, such as NorCal and Silicon Valley. 

Are these  DECAs from different schools? 

Eva: Yeah, Decas from different schools in SoCal.

A picture of this group of people who won "glass" next to the bus is (from left) Anjolie, Eva, Kayla, Kaya, Rhadhika, and Aiya.

What event did you participate in? Briefly describe your event, and if you placed it in your event.

Kaya Novack: So the event that I did was the start of a business plan. I actually had a partner, Aiya Nakahara. And the start of business plan is basically you build a business from the ground up. You choose what your business is, and then you have to break it down into marketing segments and target markets, and then you have to do everything. You have to do the pricing, like everything that is included in starting a business. For our specific one, we did a healthy movie theater snack company, and we ended up placing third in our event. 

Eva: Yeah, me and Anjolie participated in the same event to start a business plan, and our business was a cooling and heating blanket, and we placed second in that event. 

Kayla: I did the restaurant and food service marketing individual series. So basically, what that is is there are two role-plays where you have one is about customer relations and then one is about marketing, and it's kind of something that you're given on the spot. You have to come up with a solution for that restaurant, and t

hen I play second overall for that. 

Anjolie Galestan:
I also, when I started a business with Eva, I did a role play with Aiya that was based on hospitality and tourism. 

How did it feel representing Valencia's DECA at this conference? 

Kayla: I would say that Valencia DECA as a whole. We’re a very cohesive chapter, so representing Valencia DECA at the SoCal District Conference was just such a great experience because we got to network with so many people and just really talk about what it means to be a part of Valencia DECA.

Is there any message to the general student body that you want to say about DECA? Maybe advertise DECA for more people, combat any rumors about DECA, or just advertise for DEA?

Kayla: I would say definitely join DEA, even if you're not interested in business or entrepreneurship or starting your own business. You can learn a lot from our advisor, Mrs. Marquez. She talks a lot about life lessons you learn, about how to manage your time, how to network with other people, how to communicate. 
We even do things like LinkedIn profiles. And so I think that entrepreneurship and DECA are something that every single person should join, even if you're not necessarily interested in starting your own business. 

Eva: Yeah, I would also say that even if you are already in DECA, I would say definitely go to the conferences. That's the place where you learn the most. You get to network and meet such great people, and it also helps you really practice your speaking to people's skills and your marketing skills because marketing is not only about business, it's also about marketing yourself, and it helps you build those skills. 

Kaya: And not only that, I know it sounds like a lot of businessy stuff, but the conferences are really, really fun.
Like, for example, state, which we're about to go to in a month, we get to do fun activities. Like for example, we're going to Disneyland one of the days. 

Any final thoughts from anybody? 


Kayla: I just think that going to the Southern California District Conference was really exciting, and we're also going to be going to the State Conference at the end of February, which we're all very excited for, and I definitely think that if you're not already in DECA, you should definitely join. 

Top 10 finalists in their categories: Members prepared their projects (ex. Integrated Marketing Campaign, Startup Business Plan) for months, competing in these events as well as taking 100-question written exams and competing in individual/team events (roleplays) based on their category of choice.

• Azlan Wani (Human Resources Management Series, Start-Up Business Plan)

• Anjolie Galestan & Eva Ritsner (Start-Up Business Plan) ---> 2nd Place

• Aiya Nakahara & Kaya Novack  (Start-Up Business Plan ---> 3rd Place, Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series for Kaya) 

• Aarna Bunyan (Start-Up Business Plan)

• Bailey Haydamack & Charlotte Lee (Start-Up Business Plan)

• Rudra Narkhede & Vineeth Sharma (Start-Up Business Plan, Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making)

• Jason Lee (Integrated Marketing Campaign - Event)

• Radhika Batra (Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product) -> 2nd Place

• Emily Donovan (Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product)

• Ava Martin (Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product)

• Sean Oh (Integrated Marketing Campaign - Service)

• Rayana Alcharif (Integrated Marketing Campaign - Service)

• Kayla Donovan (Restaurant & Food Service Management Series) -> 2nd Place