Students in one of Ridgewood High School’s larger and more competitive clubs, DECA, had the chance to compete with about 120 other school districts in New Jersey this month. DECA is a non-profit student organization that has about 175,000 members from the United States, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Germany. The competitive events, a major part of the organization, are aligned with the National Curriculum Standards. These events focus on business management, marketing, finance, hospitality, and tourism. One way in which students may compete in these events is with role play. A role play requires students to put themselves into the shoes of a business owner or worker for a certain task, essentially a role-play requires students to think on their feet to solve a problem. Another way to compete would be with a paper that is either ten or twenty pages, once again having to be about a specific category of business.
Recently, RHS role play qualifiers and papers competitors went to Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This competition was called SCDC, also known as the state competition. Ridgewood High School successfully had a hundred members qualify for states.
Through the state competition, students are able to qualify for ICDC, the International Career Development Conference. This year, the conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. Ridgewood has over 50 students attending ICDC, for both the leadership conferences and competition. These events are a drastic change from DECA states and ICDC 2021, in which all competition was virtual due to COVID-19. Saachi, a junior, says competing in person was “such a nice experience compared to when it was just virtual.” Emily, one of DECA’s Co-Presidents, says “it was an amazing experience this year.”
The RHS DECA chapter had a very successful states competition, and will hopefully go on to succeed at ICDC.
Melike Yesil
Columnist
Graphic: Vivian Yuan