Wonder where all the successful business leaders of the world are stemming from? Some are actually from our very own school and are in the DECA program! 

The Distributive Education Clubs of America is an organization for highschool students who are interested in pursuing business as a career in the future. In this program, there are events and competitions where students utilize their marketing/business skills.

 Thursday, January 11th all DECA members had their first competition at Ramapo College where they participated in a role-play to compete with other students in their specific topic cluster. Some popular topic clusters are marketing, business management, and administration, finance, hospitality, and tourism. 

The role-play is when students are given a certain scenario having to do with their cluster topic, and must come up with a resolution in 10 minutes. During the role play, the judge and the contestant are one on one sitting across from each other. The student then has at most 10 minutes to explain their resolution. During this evaluation, the judge is allowed to ask further questions. The role play is graded on a rubric where the judge will then decide if the contestant will advance to states.

Max Brickman is currently a junior at NVD who had a vital role as a DECA officer. He is the Vice President of Communications where he works diligently with the rest of the DECA board to set up meetings, go over competition details, and more.

“My favorite part about DECA is the competition. My category is the Automotive Services Marketing Series where I get to combine the automotive industry and business,” Brickman said. 

DECA includes many skills such as problem solving, presenting, and creativity. In the role plays each contestant can use their own skills, knowledge, and personality to advance to the next level. The competition consists of three different levels that range from regionals, states, and even the international competitions. 

“The DECA competition stimulates valuable experiences and skills that allow students to showcase their abilities and prepare them for the business world,” Brickman said.

Brickman also explains that he has created many fundraisers and even a food drive for the local food pantry. He worked with Jordan Rudin (Vice President of Community Service) to deliver and sort many different goods that they received to the food pantry. 

DECA brings what is learned in classrooms about business into real life scenarios where students apply their knowledge. 

“This program gives students the opportunity to develop leadership skills, teamwork, communication, and more. It has given me so much insight about this field,” Brickman said.