Students from Valencia High School’s DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) Club will have a chance to compete in DECA’s International Career Development Conference (ICDC) this year.
The students—senior Joel Beckwith, sophomore Kristen Beckwith, senior Mark Gray and sophomore Shani Tyson—qualified for the international competition after their success at DECA’s State Career Development Conference (SCDC) in Santa Clara, Calif. from March 2 to March 4.
Only the top four students in each category qualified to represent the state of California in the international competition.
Tyson, who is also the vice president of marketing for Valencia DECA, said a total of 15 students from Valencia DECA competed at SCDC in individual contests and project-based contests.
Joel Beckwith and Kristen Beckwith qualified for the written event series and won first place in the Creative Marketing Project category.
“They focused on taking a brand and remarketing it,” Tyson said. “They worked with KHTS and helped them rebrand their company to reach the younger audiences.”
Gray and Tyson also won first place for their Community Service Project where they worked with Santa Clarita’s Bridge to Home.
Tyson said the duo worked with Bridge to Home by providing physical service at the shelter, holding educational seminars about homelessness and hosting a food drive at their high school.
“A lot of our campaign was focused on management and organization… and continuing that relationship for future community service,” she said.
In the individual competition, students completed 100-question test and role-play scenarios in the areas of: automated service marketing, business service marketing, retail merchandising, marketing communications, restaurant service management, hospitality and tourism, sports and entertainment, and fashion and merchandising.
“Everyone had to do a test within their category,” Tyson said. “For the role-plays, it was job scenarios and real-life applications of their career interests.”
According to the DECA website, more than 16,000 high school students, advisors, businesspersons and alumni attend the International Career Development Conference from April 25 to April 30 in Anaheim, Calif.
“It’s going to be such an awesome experience because I’ve never been to an international competition before so to be able to go to ICDC through a community service project is a big deal,” Tyson said.
Through DECA, high school and college students learn skills to become emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management careers around the globe.
With competitions and lessons, students learn to become academically-prepared, community-oriented, professionally-responsible and experienced leaders.
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