Kyleigh Ing | October 12 2022
As college applications arise, everyone is trying to cram their portfolios with numerous academic extracurriculars. DECA is for students aspiring to take their bright minds into the business industry. Dive into DECA knowing its history, purpose and benefits.
The Distributive Education Clubs of America, more commonly referred to by its acronym DECA, is a not-for-profit organization with a focus on the business industry. This organization aspires to help students in secondary and post-secondary institutions build a strong foundation for business and leadership skills. There are many annual conferences and competitions associated with DECA, including written and oral events. There are three levels of competition: regionals, provincials, and internationals, respectively. Only the best delegates in each conference will advance to the next level of competition. During these conferences, students will take written exams and analyze case studies to find solutions. As business is such a vast industry, the events are separated into clusters. Students can choose to compete in one of the following clusters: marketing, business management and administration, hospitality and tourism, finance, entrepreneurship, or personal financial literacy. Judges will evaluate a student’s solutions based on a variety of criteria, including communication, creativity and quality of solutions.
At these conferences, students have the chance to earn awards and scholarships that are recognized and accepted at many prestigious institutions. In addition, DECA allows students to network and receive mentorship from industry professionals. Furthermore, conferences and competition open a doorway to build leadership and communication skills. This organization aims to merge academics with real-world critical thinking skills.
The organization was officially founded in 1946. However, the concept of DECA has been around for decades before. From 1937 to 1942, the cooperative programs at the secondary school level were becoming ever more popular. Especially in the marketing education industry, which we now know as distributive education. However, conflict arose as students in these programs would sacrifice time in school for real-world opportunities. As a solution, students established clubs within their communities and this became a widespread trend amongst the nation. The clubs were not unified by their names but were unified by a goal: to merge the academic and real-world applications of business. By 1940, many states had started holding state-wide conferences. In 1946, the United States Office of Education organized a meeting in Washington, D.C. and invited representatives from all over the country. The logistics of DECA were established and the first interstate conference was held in Memphis, Texas in 1947. A year later, in 1948, DECA officially claimed their name.
Now, DECA is established not only in the United States but also in Canada, Guam, Germany and more. The organization has expanded to 177,000 members and 3,200 chapters. DECA continues to become increasingly popular as an extracurricular to put on a resume or to put on college applications. However, there is so much more to gain than a reputable word on an application.
Works Cited
“Competitive Events.” Ontario DECA, <https://deca.ca/competitive-events/> Accessed 12
October 2022.
“DECA.” DECA Inc, DECA, <https://www.deca.org/> Accessed 12 October 2022.
“History of National DECA.” Georgia DECA,
<https://gadeca.org/national-deca-history.php>Accessed 12 October 2022.
“What Is DECA?” Lewis Palmer,
s%20DECA> Accessed 12 October 2022.
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