This article originally appeared in the spring 2016 Harker Quarterly.
Harker DECA Excels at State Conference
Almost 90 students traveled to San Diego in early March to compete with more than 2,000 other California DECA members at the State Career Development Conference. Harker garnered six first place wins, a pair of second place wins, a quartet of third place wins and more than a dozen additional top 10 awards.
During the four days there, students competed, attended workshops, took protégé exams and went to Belmont Park for a little fun and relaxation.
A highlight of the trip was Harker’s chapter advisor, Juston Glass, passing on his 2015 Advisor of the Year award to the 2016 recipient.
Two days were dedicated to written events and role-play competitions. At the mini awards, 36 Harker students were recognized for achievements in their respective competitions.
At the grand awards ceremony on the final day of the conference, Harker DECA earned an astounding 26 top 10 wins. Additionally, 15 teams qualified for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC), which will be held in Nashville, Tenn., in April.
Overall, this conference was a huge success for Harker DECA, not only in terms of competitions, but also in terms of experience. Students had a lot of fun in the SoCal sun and achieved competitive excellence. Harker DECA proved once again to be a top competitor in the most competitive state in the nation. DECA members are looking forward to ICDC!
DECA Astounds with Record-Breaking Wins at Annual Conference
Harker DECA chapter members garnered 19 top three wins at the 2016 Silicon Valley Career Development Conference in early January and 42 teams received mini awards. In addition to the excellent competitive results, three members were elected to the Silicon Valley District Action Team for the 2016-17 year: Alisa Su, grade 10, as vice president of public relations; Erin Liu, grade 9, as vice president of fashion; and Haley Tran, grade 11, as executive vice president.
Students were jazzed by the results and support they received from fellow students.
“The energy when a Harker DECA member won was unprecedented, and all the other students in the room were shocked by the amount of energy our chapter brought,” noted Vanessa Tyagi, grade 10, director of communications for Harker DECA.
“The support for each competitor was unbelievable,” added Alexander Mo, grade 11, director of written events. “I really think that Harker DECA impressed schools not only with our competitive results, but also our bond as a chapter.”
Changes within the chapter have improved results. “We’ve had the best competitive results this year since the inception of the business and entrepreneurship department,” said Sophia Luo, grade 12, Harker DECA CEO. “Thanks to our newly formed officer mentorship program, many of our members worked one-on-one with experienced officers and achieved competitive excellence. I’m so proud of everyone, mentors and mentees alike.”
Winning gave participants a huge charge. “The feeling when I heard my name being called up on to the stage was amazing,” noted Ashna Chandra, grade 10, Harker DECA director of membership. “All the late nights and hard work were definitely worth it. Just thinking about being on stage and receiving the trophy gives me chills, it was such a surreal experience.”
Not all the successes were from beating competitors; some came from just participating. “I had a really good time at SVCDC this year,” said Shaan Gagneja, grade 10. “I was a finalist in both events that I competed in, and an overall finalist in my written event. I got to meet new people and expand my social network. This conference was an overall success for Harker DECA, and I can’t wait for the rest of the competitive season.”
DECA Out and About on Campuses
DECA is keeping busy back on campus, too. Starting early in the school year, the chapter sponsored an Idea Challenge on the middle school campus to bring DECA to middle schoolers. Middle school teams were assigned an item – in this case, a cardboard box – from which to create a product. Each team then had to promote the product via a video.
In late February, Glass and Logan Drazovich, grade 12, DECA vice president of public relations, went to the middle school campus to announce the winners of the Idea Challenge. Each team was judged on innovation, the value of their new idea, sustainability of the product and the effectiveness of their teamwork and communication.
Later in February, the DECA public relations team went to the middle school to meet with the members of the Stock Market Club. Drazovich led a discussion on the basics of the stock market, and gave the members valuable advice on how to play The Stock Market Game, an online simulation of the global capital markets. The middle school Stock Market Club members were enthusiastic and eager to learn new tips and tricks on how to further their “investments.”
DECA also connected with the upper school student body at an informal “lunch and learn” gathering hosted by Sanil Rajput, grade 12, DECA director of finance. Rajput talked about the basics of insurance: how it works, the different types of insurance, and why it’s essential. “I believe the lunch and learn went flawlessly,” said Rajput. “Students came in ready to learn and excited and asked many questions throughout. Overall, it was a great experience for everyone.”
The chapter also hosted a showing and discussion of Shark Tank, the popular reality show that encourages entrepreneurship. Alisa Su noted, “It was not only fun to watch the show in a classroom setting, but the discussion was insightful and invigorating. Who knew you could learn so much about business from a TV show!?”
Finally, DECA pitched top government officials in our area to promote programs like DECA. As part of its public policy- makers outreach, the group contacted Gov. Jerry Brown, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. In emails to each, DECA addressed the importance of career technical education programs in high school, hoping to engage the leaders in a dialogue.
For the full list of winners and additional details for each conference, go to news. harker.org and search “DECA.”
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s DECA program hit on all cylinders this winter, achieving new milestones!
First off, Harker DECA president Savi Joshi, grade 12 and advisor Juston Glass were named student of the year and advisor of the year, respectively. The winners were chosen by nomination and no chapter has ever had both a student and advisor named in the same year. Joshi was chosen from more than 5,000 student members in California, and Glass was chosen out of more than 100 advisors in California.
State DECA Conference In late February and early March, 98 students from Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara to attend California’s State Career Development Conference. This four-day business conference and competition included workshops with renowned speakers, events with tough opponents and experiences for a lifetime.
“Our students did very well in competitions,” said junior Shannon Hong, Harker DECA director of communications and executive vice president of Silicon Valley DECA. The group took home three first-place awards, two third-place awards and 21 other top 10 awards.
Attending the state conference “was [not just] my final competition prior to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) last April,” said Joshi, who took home a fourth-place award for her community service project. “It meant seeing my family in its element. That’s what DECA has become for me: a family. It’s the place and people I can go to when I need help, comfort or a challenge.
“ICDC is definitely a bittersweet event, as it signifies the end of a life-changing four year journey. I am DECA. We are Harker DECA. Welcome to our family,” added Joshi.
Along with competitions, students attended workshops, competed in role play and written events, had fun at Great America and sang karaoke. They also attended a formal dance, and the mini and grand awards ceremonies.
Advocacy Video Competition DECA’s “I am DECA” theme is the cornerstone of its 2014-15 marketing and membership campaign, and the video by Ankur Karwal, grade 11, and Alexis Gauba, grade 10, was named one of the top three in the DECA Advocacy Video Challenge. DECA challenged its members to produce a short video during Career and Technical Education Month that expressed their own stories and shared how career and technical education has impacted their high school experience so far.
More than 30 videos were submitted from high school and collegiate DECA members.
Finish Line Finalists Glenn Reddy, grade 12, and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, traveled to Indianapolis as one of three finalist teams nationwide competing in the DECA Finish Line Challenge. The teams advised Finish Line Inc. executives on how the company can best utilize and improve upon its omni-channel retailing strategy and company branding. Reddy and Drazovich submitted a video as part of the competition, and they received the winning accolades, coming in ahead of the other two finalist teams.
CareerConnect CareerConnect is Harker’s mentorship, career panel and professionalism program, featuring speakers from across a spectrum of professions. Recent CareerConnect guests have included Jag Kapoor, president of Golden State Restaurants Inc.; Cammie Dunaway, CEO of KidZania United States; Gigi Kelly, adjunct professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia; and Gary Gauba, president of Cognilytics-CenturyLink.
“CareerConnect’s panels were a great success in their second year,” said Shannon Hong. “Many students came out to hear from professionals in the fields of medicine, law, computer science, engineering and business. The panels provide a platform for students to learn from these professionals to gain an idea of a potential career path and build their network. We are now launching our second year of mentorship, a program that pairs students with professionals in their specific fields of interest so they can learn more about that specific niche and even shadow their mentors at their workplaces.”
Lead On More than 30 girls attended the Lead On Silicon Valley Conference for Women, along with more than 5,000 women from various industries, including technology, business, entrepreneurship and more. CareerConnect, part of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program, sponsored the event with the help of Riverbed Technology Inc., which funded the entire Harker contingent to the event. Many, but not all, of the Harker attendees were from the B.E./DECA program.
Stock Market Game Harker DECA won its region with a final amount of $179,387.65. The next highest winner in the Western region scored $150,333.92; those were also the two highest scores nationwide. Team members Safia Khouja and David Lin, both seniors, are eligible to travel to Orlando, Fla., in April to participate in the Stock Market Game at the 2015 DECA International Career Development Conference. At that event, they will defend their investment decisions for a chance to be recognized at the ICDC Grand Awards Session.
The year isn’t over, but seniors are beginning to look back on their time with DECA with nostalgia and appreciation. “Of all my years of participating in Harker DECA, this year has certainly been the most enjoyable and rewarding,” said Jonathan Lee, grade 12, Harker DECA vice president of operations. “I felt that the spirit, camaraderie and mutual support reached an all-time high this year. Personally, I think DECA taught me what it means to be a leader. It means that I have to put my team and my chapter before myself whenever I make a decision. Of course this lesson of leadership, loyalty and commitment has extended into every aspect of my life.”
Harker DECA is an international competitive business organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. The chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business, and promotes competition so the next generation will be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
The year started at a sprint and ended with a bang for DECA and the new business and entrepreneurship department (B.E.) – and all of the participants earned a well-deserved summer break. B.E. finished a historic first year with record sign-ups for the upcoming school year, while DECA finished with its best-ever International Career Development Conference (ICDC).
DECA is an international organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. The DECA chapter’s trip to the ICDC in Atlanta yielded excellent results, with three top five finishes across various competitions and two more in the top 20, making it Harker’s best performance at the competition. Attendee Raymond Xu, grade 9, said, “DECA ICDC topped off this year as a showcase of our abilities, and we not only represented Harker but all of California as well.” Harker’s DECA chapter, which sent a record 24 students to the conference, plans to build on this momentum at future international DECA events.
The DECA chapter also is running an ongoing set of interactive simulations as part of its Team Business/Wharton School of Business program, intended to help students learn how businesses are actually run. Juston Glass, B.E. chair, said he has received “hands-on certification [to teach] students to not just learn theory but [the] actual practice” of how to run a business.
Students have responded very positively to the program. Adarsh Battu, grade 12, said, “Because of the way the simulation is structured, we are encouraged to analyze, innovate and ask questions that are important to running a business,” and that the simulation has “taught me a lot more than I initially expected.”
Meanwhile, the DECA chapter is engaged in a social media contest to pick the theme for a conference it will host in August. It will introduce newcomers to the various components of DECA while helping them develop good relationships with the officers whose DECA careers they hope to emulate.
The B.E. department also has kept busy. This year, it began overseeing Harker’s TEDx series; these talks aim to spread ideas and spark conversation on a variety of topics, such as technology and education.
This year, Harker’s TEDx talks surpassed all previous attendance and performance metrics, with speakers from prestigious companies including David Girouard, founder and CEO of Upstart, a rapidly growing lending company.
Meanwhile, the B.E. department’s Career Connect program worked to “connect students with their futures.” Extending an existing mentorship program, Career Connect pairs eager students with mentors and experts in the fields of medicine, business, law, computer science and engineering. Riya Chandra, grade 9, said, “The panels have been so inspiring to listen to and have even opened up my thoughts for considering other fields that I was not interested in before.” The program plans to continue pairing mentors and mentees in the coming school year.
In addition, B.E. oversees a podcast series, in which host Glenn Reddy, grade 11, interviews local business leaders about their experiences. Most recently, he interviewed Adam Draper, co-founder and CEO of Boost VC.
Sophia Luo, grade 10, who has managed the logistics of the B.E. podcast series as its director of operations, said, “I have been exposed to the life stories and experiences of successful business professionals of the Bay Area.” Luo and fellow students look forward to the continuation of the series.
The B.E. department has made great strides in its first year at Harker. Like runners after a marathon, the DECA chapter and B.E. programs have crossed the finish line and earned their recovery period. But their breather won’t last long as Glass is expecting increased interest from the student body and explosive program growth next year.