The 2021-22 Harker DECA officer team was awarded first place in DECA’s Lead4Change Challenge. Lead4Change is an organization that promotes student leadership and teaches important skills such as communication, problem-solving, collaboration and critical thinking through lessons and challenges. Specifically, the Lead4Change Challenge asked participants to enter a submission where each team solved a problem or promoted a cause. These included a detailed action plan, an elevator pitch, reflections, graphical representations of the project process and much more. The $2,000 grant received from this award will be donated to a chosen charity. The team is made up of co-CEOs Gigi Chan and Clarice Wang, both grade 12; VP of operations Arin Jain, grade 11; VP of finance Trisha Variyar, grade 11; VP of public relations Catherine He, grade 12; VP of competitions Anika Muddu, grade 11; director of membership Chloe Lee, grade 10; director of community engagement Indigo Lee, grade 11; director of technology: Shreeya Merchia, grade 10; director of communications: Claire Luo, grade 10; director of roleplays Cynthia Wang, grade 10; and director of written events Kaitlyn Wang, grade 10
Chapter advisor Juston Glass said, “I’m super proud of this year’s officer team for their continual efforts to lead and inspire others for both change and making the world a better place. We are especially excited for the Lead4Change program and all that it does to teach and guide our students in improving their communities one day at a time.”
From Jan. 7-9 the Harker DECA chapter participated in the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference (SVCDC), the first competitive conference of the year. The transition back to the in-person environment sparked excitement in the community, as the event garnered over 120 signups. The weekend consisted of written and roleplay presentations in front of professional judges, networking opportunities and motivational speeches from California DECA’s State Officer Team.
On the first day of the conference, each student took exams in their respective clusters: Marketing, Business Management and Administration, Finance, Hospitality and Tourism, or Business Administration Core. Later that evening, SVCDC kicked off with the opening session in the Grand Ballroom. California DECA’s vice president of Silicon Valley, Tim Jing, announced the theme of the year, “Maximize Your Momentum,” and encouraged all Silicon Valley DECA members to do so while at the conference. The opening session closed with a talent show featuring two acts from the Harker DECA chapter. Sophomores Chloe Lee and Kaitlyn Wang and junior Anika Muddu performed an acoustic version of “Gone” by Rosé, while sophomore Shreeya Merchia sang a powerful rendition of “Red” by Taylor Swift.
The next morning, roleplay events began, which primarily consist of team decision-making, individual series, principles and personal financial literacy roleplays. Soon after, members competed in their written events where they gave 15-minute presentations in entrepreneurship, integrated marketing campaign, professional selling or business operations research categories. For the remainder of the afternoon, students socialized with friends and explored restaurants nearby.
On Sunday, the mini awards ceremony recognized competitors who performed exceptionally well in the testing, roleplay or presentation subcategories of their events.
“I honestly was so shocked when I received the awards, but I was extremely happy that my hard work paid off and I was able to perform well in my events. In the end it was a great and thrilling experience,” said Saahira Dayal, grade 9, who placed second overall in Principles of Business Management and Administration.
Later, during the grand awards ceremony, a total of 20 Harker teams placed in the top three overall for their events, while many more earned spots in the top 10 awards.
Overall, despite the effects of COVID-19, the conference was a huge success. It provided attendees with a fantastic experience that provided valuable insights into their competitive events and a special chance to forge new friendships.
“I’m incredibly proud of all the officers and attendees for adapting to the new restrictions and environment at this conference. It was great to see how much dedication everyone put into their competitive events, and I can’t wait to maximize our momentum at the State and International conferences this year!” said Juston Glass, Harker DECA’s chapter advisor.
Members placing in the top three are as follows:
First Place:
Shreeya Merchia, grade 10, and Anika Muddu, grade 11: Sports and Entertainment Operations Research
Marcus Blennemann, grade 9: Principles of Finance
Second Place:
Chloe Lee and Kaitlyn Wang, both grade 10: Marketing Team Decision Making
Bowen Xia, grade 9: Principles of Finance
Tanisha Singh, grade 10: Entrepreneurship Series
Medha Yarlagadda, grade 10: Restaurant and Food Service Management Series
Claire Luo, grade 10: Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series
Saahira Dayal, grade 9: Principles of Business Management
Third Place:
Chloe Lee, Kaitlyn Wang and Cynthia Wang, all grade 10: Integrated Marketing Campaign- Event
Marcus Blennemann and Nelson Gou, both grade 9: Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan
Catherine He, grade 12: International Business Plan
Saahira Dayal, grade 9: Franchise Business Plan
Jonathan Wang, grade 9: Principles of Finance
Valerie Li, grade 9: Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research
Ashwin Kuppahally and Adrian Liu, both grade 10: Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making
Bowen Xia, Caleb Tang and Jonathan Wang, both grade 9: Finance Operations Research
Sanaa Bhorkar, grade 9: Principles of Business Management
Justin Chen, grade 10: Business Finance Series
Meishin Yen, grade 10: Hotel and Lodging Management Series
Catherine He, grade 12: Restaurant and Food Service Management Series
Last month, Harker’s DECA chapter hosted its first fall conference, during which 50 grade 9 DECA members from the Silicon Valley district prepared for the upcoming DECA competitive season.
Attendees enjoyed a light breakfast before activities began in Nichols Hall. Following some introductory presentations and icebreaker activities, the students took part in a testing exercise modeled after tests given at DECA conferences. “I was excited that a lot of our first-year members got to experience this before their first competitive conference,” said junior Anika Muddu, Harker DECA’s vice president of competitions.
After lunch, students learned about DECA roleplay tournaments and developed responses to a prompt about ethics in the hotel industry. After presenting their responses to volunteer judges, the students received feedback on how to improve. “The roleplay tournament was a great first introduction to what the roleplay experience would be in a real conference. It’s definitely a different feeling when you know that you want to do well and place,” said Gabe Li, grade 9.
Later, the students had the opportunity to take part in workshops on a variety of topics. Stanford lecturer Matt Abrahams hosted a workshop on persuasive speaking, while entrepreneur and angel investor Suneela Muddu presented on how to pitch a business. Other workshops included “Investing 101” by Cisco engineer Yuri Mitnick and “Social Media Marketing,” delivered by Chegg social media manager Daisy Zhang.
During the closing ceremony, awards for the day’s competitions were doled out. Awardees were as follows:
Testing:
First Place: Cindy Yu
Second Place: Emily Mitnick, Gia Emelie, Gary Jin
Third Place: Shiven Balaji, Valerie Li, Ruhan Sahasi
Roleplay Tournament:
First Place: Sam Parupudi
Second Place: Tiana Salvi
Third Place: Saahira Dayal
Top 10 (Listed Alphabetically): Maya Affaki, Saahira Dayal, Ariana Gauba, Gabe Li, Valerie Li, Lauren Lin, Sam Parupudi, Tiana Salvi, Shaila Tandon, Caleb Tang
More than 200 members of the Harker community headed to the upper school’s Rothschild Performing Arts Center on Nov. 20 for this year’s TEDxHarker School, organized each year by students in Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program.
The impressive lineup of speakers assembled for this year’s event included chef, author and restaurateur Alice Waters, who appeared via Zoom to speak on school-supported agriculture and its effects on climate change and social inequality. She also advocated for the procurement of school foods directly from farmers, and touched on her work with the Edible Schoolyard Project and the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education, which has partnered with the University of California.
Author Dan Roam spoke on the power of visual storytelling, as detailed in his book, “The Back of the Napkin: How Visual Storytelling Works.” Roam, who has worked with leadership at companies such as Google, Microsoft and Boeing, presented on how simple illustrations can help leaders make sense of complex situations.
Hetal Vasavada, a contestant on the sixth season of the competitive cooking show MasterChef, talked about how she pursued a career outside of the STEM fields pursued by many Indian-Americans. Originally on the path to a career in the sciences, Vasavada discussed her pivot to the food industry and how she convinced her family (as well as herself) that it was the right choice.
This year’s TEDxHarker School student speaker was senior Aaron Tran, whose passions include bioinformatics and scientific ethics and philosophy. Spurred by the worrying amount of misinformation that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tran talked about solutions to the concerning lack of information literacy and the growing mistrust people have of one another.
In addition to the speakers, attendees also enjoyed perusing the exhibitor area, where they played with robotic toys made by Petoi, tried out slime samples from Dots N Stripes and got an up-close look at the Vinci electric bike.
At lunch, students had the chance to sit down with local business mentors to ask questions and receive advice.
Videos of this year’s TEDxHarker speakers are expected to be uploaded to the TEDx YouTube channel in the coming months.
Last week, CareerConnect, Harker’s student-run networking and career preparation program, led a leadership workshop featuring Helen Zhu ’21, who discussed journalism leadership and clubs at Harker, and Avi Gulati ‘20, who talked about the student council and volunteering in high school. Both alumni shared their experiences in finding their passions in high school, experiencing new classes and clubs, and being involved in student leadership.
Claire Cheng, a freshman who attended the session said, “I think that the event was very interesting, because I learned how two successful Harker students were able to navigate their way through high school and obtain leadership positions even in college.”
The workshop was intended to help guide grade 9 students to explore new opportunities, electives and extracurriculars before they settle. Organizers strove to make the experience memorable for the freshmen and sophomores who attended, but also the alumni speakers. “Even though I was halfway across the country from the upper school campus, it was really heartwarming to be able to see the freshman and sophomores in the classrooms through the Zoom screen,” Zhu said. “I was so glad to be able to give back to the Harker community and I really hope the attendees learned something new!”
On Oct. 27, CareerConnect brought nine students on a day trip to Constellation Research’s three-day Connected Enterprise business conference, held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Half Moon Bay, to help them better understand what is currently happening in the business world as well as what is predicted to happen in the future. The participants heard from many highly qualified speakers, many of whom are executives in Fortune 500 companies including Amazon and Salesforce. The students learned about the applications of technology and business models in various industries.
One of the notable speakers was Colin Bryer, a former executive at Amazon as well as the author of “Working Backwards,” which provides an inside perspective on the methodology and culture of Amazon. He discussed his experiences working closely with Jeff Bezos and how businesses like Amazon plan for the long term. Another was Geeta Nayyar, the executive medical director at Salesforce, who described the technological changes in the medical industry as a result of COVID-19.
Overall, the trip was a success and provided inspiration for students interested in business. When asked what he wanted the students to gain from Connected Enterprise, R “Ray” Wang, Constellation’s founder and CEO, explained that he wished for all the students to “see what trends are happening and meet people.” He further elaborated that everyone at the conference was approachable and happy to give advice to the students. Sophomore Claire Miao, reflecting on the benefits of the event, commented, “I thought it was a great experience to meet industry professionals that are at the top of their industry. All of the talks were great, and everyone had a topic to listen to that they were interested in. I also had so much fun at the hotel to see the views.”
The trip proved to be a valuable experience for the attendees, with the nine Harker students networking with new people and gaining a more comprehensive understanding of how the business world works.
On Aug. 14 and 15, the Harker DECA chapter hosted its eighth annual Harker DECA Launch event. A total of 70 incoming freshmen from the Class of 2025 attended the event, which introduced them to Harker’s business and entrepreneurship department and the DECA experience as a whole. The weekend consisted of alumni speakers, workshops, mock competitions and informative lectures.
On Saturday morning, the attendees socialized after a year of virtual learning while enjoying a breakfast of Noah’s Bagels. They then attended the opening ceremony inside Nichols Auditorium, where students were first introduced to the DECA experience through presentations and by listening to the experiences of alumni Bryan Zhang ‘21, former Harker DECA vice president of competitions, and current DECA member Ada Praun-Petrovic, grade 11.
Next, students participated in an icebreaker challenge led by director of membership Chloe Lee, grade 10, in order to get to know each other in preparation for the weekend. The innovation challenge teams, groups of five to six attendees and led by a Harker DECA officer, worked together to build the tallest free-standing structure using marshmallows, raw spaghetti and string. Following the icebreaker activity, attendees were brought into the Innovation Center, the home base of the B.E. department, where they learned more about DECA, from the competitive experience to the business clusters available in competitions. To further immerse the attendees in the competitive clusters, officers were stationed at five locations around the IC to speak about the five clusters that the students rotated through: business management and administration, hospitality and tourism, marketing, entrepreneurship and finance.
After lunch from Pizza My Heart, the 12 innovation challenge teams participated in a scavenger hunt activity where they searched for officers located in various parts of the upper school campus and performed different tasks such as winning a game of rock, paper, scissors or making a secret handshake.
“The Scavenger Hunt was really enjoyable because the challenges were designed to help us get to know our teammates better. It helped me learn the ins and outs of my teammates, which definitely helped us during the innovation challenge,” said Daniel Chen, grade 9.
After reconvening back at the IC, the competitions subteam, consisting of vice president of competitions and strategy Anika Muddu, grade 11, director of written events Kaitlyn Wang, grade 10, and director of roleplays Cynthia Wang, grade 10, introduced the innovation challenge. For the rest of the afternoon, the students worked in their teams to come up with a new idea that would fit under the umbrella of social entrepreneurship,” the theme for the 2021 DECA Launch Innovation Challenge.
“As one of the first in-person events to introduce freshmen to the Harker upper school, and for some, to the Harker community as a whole, I think DECA launch attendees were welcomed into the school in an exciting way. Through the innovation challenge, students became more familiar with DECA and the Harker B.E. department’s offerings. The other officers and I were so impressed by their work in the Innovation Challenge and are proud to welcome them all into the community,” said senior Gigi Chan, co-CEO.
The following day, chapter advisor Juston Glass gave an overview of the business and entrepreneurship department and the programs it includes. In fact, seniors Camilla Lindh, Ishaan Parate and Simren Kochhar were brought in to present their own business, H2OOT, which they had developed through the incubator class at Harker.
The officers conducted a deeper dive on the competitive experience of DECA through three main facets: the mentorship program, roleplay events and written events. The students watched a live roleplay and were guided through the various written event selection choices. They then participated in a game of Kahoot to simulate the business administration core exam with questions selected from past years’ tests.
“First-year members are usually a bit intimidated by roleplays, so I hope my live roleplay gave them more confidence in their abilities,” said Cynthia Wang.
Next, vice president of public relations Catherine He, grade 12, director of communications Claire Luo, grade 10, and director of technology Shreeya Merchia, grade 10, held a Graphic Design Workshop to aid the attendees in the creation of their Innovation Challenge slide decks and executive summaries.
After having lunch, the students were taught the tricks and tips of preparing and presenting a roleplay through the Roleplay Immersion Session hosted by the DECA mentors, leading into a roleplay tournament. The groups spent the rest of the afternoon finishing and polishing presentations and designing various materials before they pitched their final product.
“I remember coming to DECA Launch as a shy, confused freshman, so it was very exciting to watch them catch on quickly and contribute great ideas while running through a roleplay and giving them advice,” said mentor Victoria Han, grade 12.
In the evening, parents and attendees first listened to a panel consisting of alumni, including Haley Tran ‘17, Lucas Wang ‘17, Shania Wang ‘19, Evan Cheng ‘20, Rishi Dange ‘20 and Elaine Zhai ‘21, about their DECA experiences. Later, each of the 12 groups presented their innovative products in detail, including integral business components such as marketing plans, cost structures and financial analysis.
“I thought presenting the innovation challenge was a fun way to learn, and the feedback we received from the multiple experienced alumni was really helpful. It was really fulfilling to present what we’d worked on for the weekend. DECA launch was the perfect start to my high school experience,” said Sophia Liu, grade 9.
DECA launch was concluded with the awards ceremony, which recognized the top ten roleplay teams as well as the awards for the innovation challenge.
“I was so impressed by every single one of the attendees; their energy and enthusiasm made the event fun and exciting for everyone. I can’t wait for the school year to maximize our momentum and see what they all achieve!” said Glass.
Students that won awards are as follows (all grade 9):
Roleplay Tournament::
1st Place: Hanyang Shang, Vedant Yadav
2nd Place: Daniel Chen, Alex Zhong
3rd Place: Veer Sahasi, Ruhan Sahasi
Innovation Challenge:
Most Feasible: Khanlinh Tran, Young Min, Andrew Liang, Shreyas Chakravarty, Ruhan Sahasi, Veer Sahasi
Best Presentation: Daniel Chen, Alex Zhong, Anika Pallapothu, Norah Mehanna, Navya Samuel, Tiana Salvi
Most Creative: Andre Lu, Gabriel Li, Rithika Yamasani, Cindy Yu, Rahul Yalla, Gary Jin
Best Overall: Daniel Dorfman, Charlize Wang, Claire Cheng, Nikhil Pesati, Maya Affaki, Sanaa Bhorkar
From April 12 to May 6, Harker DECA members competed virtually in the annual International Career Development Conference (ICDC). With 46 competitors and two first place champions, Harker DECA had the best ICDC results in chapter history. An exceptional 12 finalists placed in the top 20 for the preliminary round. Out of those 12, eight finalists were in the top 10 final round.
“ICDC and just DECA in general are both very exciting. It allowed not just my team but the entire DECA community to come closer together. I am looking forward to another DECA season,” said Armaan Thakker, grade 10.
This year, Harker DECA introduced the DECA alumni coaches program to help students excel in their competitions. The officer team reached out to several competitively successful alumni and former officers including Aditi Ghalsasi ‘20, Mahi Kolla ‘20, Lucas Wang ‘17, Evan Cheng ‘20, Shania Wang ‘19, Riya Gupta ‘19, Rishi Dange ‘20, Radhika Jain ‘20 and Phil Han ‘20. Many of the alumni continued their education at top universities including the University of Southern California, New York University and University of Pennsylvania. Each alumni was assigned to a competitive team and was required to meet with them at least three times to prepare for their competitions. Overall the inaugural program dramatically improved the success of Harker DECA’s competitors this year at ICDC.
“I think one of the biggest factors that contributed to how far we got at ICDC was the fact that we had an alumni, Radhika, as our mentor. It was even more special for us personally because she had mentored us in her junior and senior year, so it was great to be able to work with her again. Even though we only met four times for about an hour each, her feedback was so helpful, and we could actually feel ourselves improving each time. I definitely feel like Emily [Zhou] and I wouldn’t have been able to get as far as we did without the alumni mentorship program,” said junior Emily Tan.
Due to the pandemic, ICDC was held virtually this year. For the preliminary round, competitors were asked to submit their presentations in video form to a portal. However, for the final round of competitions, members joined a Zoom call with a judge to perform their presentations live.
“ICDC was an incredible experience, and we were so excited to represent Harker during the final round of competition. Our previous rounds were recorded videos, so being able to present a live presentation in front of a judge was a thrilling experience, especially since this was our first year competing in DECA,” said sophomore Annmaria Antony.
Despite most of the conference being online, Harker DECA hosted a viewing party of the grand awards session on May 6. Members were invited to the Innovation Center on the upper school campus to watch the livestream of the ceremony and were given an opportunity to socialize with their peers in person. They enjoyed snacks while watching and Chipotle for dinner. This event emulated an in-person conference experience and allowed competitors to celebrate their wins together as a chapter.
Regardless of obstacles that came with competing online, members had a thrilling and enriching experience participating in ICDC. Congratulations to all of our competitors!
“These students put in countless hours and battled out seemingly endless obstacles and levels of competition to get to this point. I am so very proud of our unprecedented year resulting in not just one but two international champion teams. We had the most successful year to date for our chapter and I can’t be more proud of our Harker DECA Eagles, officer team and student mentors for all of the effort, time, grit and passion they demonstrated throughout the year. Go Eagles!” said Juston Glass, Harker DECA chapter advisor.
Winners and finalists are as follows:
First Place:
– Sasvath Ramachandran, grade 11; Virtual Business Challenge – Accounting
– Andrew Sun and Aditya Singhvi, grade 12; Hospitality Services Team Decision Making
Second Place:
– Grace Hoang and Annmaria Antony, grade 10; Marketing Management Team Decision Making
On April 16, students from various high schools attended Harker BEcon, Harker’s annual business and entrepreneurship conference. Throughout this two-day event, more than 100 students attended four events: a keynote speaker, two sets of workshops, a mentor panel and sHarker Tank.
The conference kicked off with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who based his keynote talk around responses to students’ pre-submitted questions about a variety of topics including his journey to creating Nvidia. His valuable insight and inspirational ideas taught students to value failure, learning and the journey rather than success. Afterward, students attended various workshops led by industry professionals on topics ranging from behavioral finance to strategies for creating sales pitches.
On the second day, there was another round of workshops, including financial literacy for teens. Next, students were divided into over a dozen virtual rooms and were given the opportunity to have close discussions with seasoned professionals in various industries, such as gaming, biotechnology, social media and more!
Finally, teams of Harker’s own student entrepreneurs competed to receive $1,000 of funding and the chance to pitch their businesses to real venture capital firms as an opportunity to receive even more funding. The competitors included GetWellSoon, TogaTech, H200t, SlimeeCoffee and Explere. Out of the five competitors, junior Arnav Gupta’s GetWellSoon, an expansive database pairing clinical trials with patients, placed first, and freshman Kabir Ramzan’s TogaTech, a digital privacy company, placed second.
With many students expressing very positive sentiments about their experience, BEcon successfully wrapped up its first-ever virtual conference.
From Feb. 22-25, 139 students from The Harker School DECA Chapter attended the 2021 State Career Development Conference (SCDC). This conference was held virtually due to COVID-19, and students competed by submitting recordings of their events. To simulate the in-person conference feel, SCDC also featured Career Prep Academy Workshops and a Harker DECA chapter social. Overall, Harker performed admirably, with 59 overall finalists and 28 top four written event and top five role-play winners.
“SCDC was the culmination of Harker DECA’s efforts this past year, and I am extremely proud of how far our students have come,” said senior Anvitha Tummala, Harker DECA co-CEO. “Everyone has demonstrated such commendable adaptability with a virtual DECA experience, and due to a competitively successful SCDC, I’m excited to see our chapter compete at ICDC next month!”
The conference started off with the opening ceremony, which our chapter watched through a livestream on Zoom. Students were motivated to find their purpose by keynote speaker Quinn Tempest, a successful entrepreneur who has dedicated herself to helping people reach their life goals. Tempest said, “never stop asking yourself big important questions” and “purpose is the ‘why’ that drives what you do.”
“She discussed her personal motivators and what led her to be a successful entrepreneur, inspiring me to search for my own purpose in the work I do,” said Clarice Wang, grade 11, Harker DECA VP of operations. Since this competition was held online, submissions worked similarly to SVCDC, and members were given two days to record their written presentations and roleplays, put the documents in a Google Drive folder, and turn in the link to the DECA submissions portal.
“Though I’d much rather be presenting in person, it isn’t all bad! I liked that we could re-record if we made a small mistake, and the conference went very smoothly,” said Shreeya Merchia, grade 9.
SCDC activities continued with a Harker DECA Chapter social which took place on March 5. The Harker DECA Officer team prepared a variety of fun and engaging breakout-room activities such as baking cookies, playing Among Us, watching “Wandavision,” participating in sports trivia and more. Members were allowed to hop between as many of the bonding activities as they liked, the most popular being “Wandavision.”
“Although this is our second time competing in an online format, the Harker DECA chapter has been preparing for a virtual competition the entire year through Zoom study sessions. Students submitted videos of their presentations and PDFs of their business plans that were judged asynchronously,” said senior Bryan Zhang, Harker DECA VP of competitions. “Despite not being able to have live competition, we were still able to simulate business case studies and develop ourselves professionally. The virtual format also demanded higher levels of creativity and teamwork to stay ahead of the curve of other teams, which I am sure will benefit all competitors in the long term.”
The competition concluded with an awards ceremony hosted by California DECA on Thursday, March 11. Members joined a livestream as the California DECA officer team recognized advisors and announced ICDC (International Career Development Conference) qualifiers. To simulate stage recognition at an in-person conference, winners were spotlighted when their names were announced. Along with our chapter members’ achievements, Harker DECA was recognized for achieving Gold Level Certification for the Chapter Awards Program, as well as Thrive Level for the Chapter Campaigns and Membership Campaign.
“From kicking off the conference with a motivational message about purpose, our competitors no doubt found their purpose while competing at SCDC. I’m incredibly proud of the officer team for helping run this conference smoothly, and I am looking forward to making more conference memories at ICDC!” said chapter advisor Juston Glass. “Congratulations to all of our ICDC qualifiers. Go Harker Eagles!”
Members qualifying for ICDC are as follows:
1st Place
• Shreeya Merchia, grade 9; Principles of Marketing
• Vienna Parnell, grade 11; Hotel and Lodging Management Series
• Vedant Kenkare, grade 11; Marketing Communications Series
• Bodhi Saha, grade 11, Kaden Kapadia, grade 11; Sports Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making
Plan
• Ananya Bammi, grade 10, Saavi Kumar, grade 10; Finance Operations Research
• Miki Mitarai, grade 9, Medha Yarlagadda, grade 9, Meishin Yen, grade 9; Hospitality and Tourism Operations
Research
• Margaret Cartee, grade 9; Principles of Business Management and Administration
• Bryan Zhang, grade 12; Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series
• Emily Zhou, grade 11, Emily Tan, grade 11; Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making
• Aditya Singhvi, grade 12, Andrew Sun, grade 12; Hospitality Services Team Decision Making
• Annmaria Antony, grade 10, Grace Hoang, grade 10; Marketing Management Team Decision Making
3rd Place
• Emily Tan, grade 11, Emily Zhou, grade 11; Business Services Operations Research
• Leisha Devisetti, grade 10; Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research
• Cynthia Wang, grade 9; Principles of Marketing
• Rohan Varma, grade 12; Automotive Services Marketing Series
4th Place
• Max Xing, grade 9, Carey Chang, grade 9, Kevin Zhang, grade 9; Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research
• Ananya Bammi, grade 10, Saavi Kumar, grade 10; Financial Services Team Decision Making
• April Sun, grade 11; Restaurant and Food Services Management
• April Sun, grade 11; Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling
• Camilla Lindh, grade 11; Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series
5th Place
• Simren Kochhar, grade 11; Entrepreneurship Individual Series
• Sara Wan, grade 10; Human Resources Management Series
• Sujith Pakala, grade 11; Quick Serve Restaurant Management
• Victoria Han, grade 11, Catherine He, grade 11; Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making
• Elvis Han, grade 11, Melody Luo, grade 11; Marketing Management Team Decision Making
This story was submitted by Radha Mehta, grade 10.
From Jan. 11-14, 135 students from the Harker DECA chapter attended the 2021 Silicon Valley Career Development Conference (SVCDC). Due to the pandemic, this conference was held virtually, and students competed by submitting recordings of their events. SVCDC also featured Multiply Your Leadership Workshops and a Harker DECA chapter social to maintain the in-person conference feel. Overall, Harker performed admirably, with 100 finalists and 35 top three winners.
“I’ve seen our chapter members spend hours on Zoom tinkering with their presentations in the online environment, so I was so excited to see their hard work pay off at SVCDC!” said senior Lisa Barooah, Harker DECA co-CEO. “Our competitive analysis showed record competitive success, which hopefully motivates a new wave of dedicated DECA members. From chapter yoga sessions to celebratory DoorDashes, it was great to have a sense of normalcy and enjoy some DECA bonding.”
On Monday, students began their virtual SVCDC experience with the Conference Kickoff, where attendees from around the Bay Area gathered in a livestream of the opening ceremony. Keynote speaker Scott Williams gave motivational advice to the young entrepreneurs in attendance with his wise words of experience. Williams said, “managers tell it but leaders sell it” and “great leadership is less about the leader and more about the ship.”
“I really enjoyed the speech that Scott Williams gave at SVCDC. Even though it was virtual, it was still both a wonderful and engaging experience, especially for the first time attendees,” said Anika Muddu, grade 10, Harker DECA director of roleplays. Despite this conference being held online, the competition aspect went exceptionally smoothly. Students were given two days to record their written and roleplay events, put the files in a Google Drive folder, then turn in the link to the Google Drive folder to the DECA portal.
“I really liked how easy the submission process was; it made the entire conference a lot less stressful,” said Annmaria Antony, grade 10.
After submitting their competitions, the Harker DECA Chapter attended a mandatory meeting where the officer team announced the Chapter Social. This meeting along with the chapter meeting at the beginning of the conference where Muddu went over roleplay skills, mimicked the in-person conference experience.
“Competing in DECA online was a really interesting experience. I learned how to adapt to unexpected challenges and make the most of limited resources, a skill that I will carry with me through high school and beyond,” said sophomore Ada Praun-Petrovic. A week later, from Jan. 25-27, members were required to attend a Multiply Your Leadership event and a judge feedback session. At the Multiply Your Leadership sessions, students participated in a fun trivia game and received tips about becoming a leader. At the judge feedback sessions, SVCDC judges explained to the attendees what they enjoyed seeing in competitions and what members should avoid during conferences.
The Harker DECA Chapter Social took place Jan. 27 and was designed for students to participate in a fun team-bonding activity. Members were allowed to choose between a guided meditation session with certified yoga and meditation instructor Ben Wexler and a poster making activity with Muddu.
“Harker DECA not only participated in an unprecedented event being virtual, but we also had unprecedented results having the most wins overall for the first time in our Silicon Valley District, despite being a small school. I couldn’t be more proud of the officers who helped make the conference the success that it was and for our competitors who demonstrated sound resiliency throughout the process and delivered excellent results. Now we look forward to the state conference. Go Eagles!” said Juston Glass, business and entrepreneurship teacher and chapter advisor.