Minnetonka Students Win Big

Minnetonka High School is home to the largest DECA chapter in the state. DECA, which formerly stood for Distributive Education Careers Association, prepares students as emerging leaders in business, finance and marketing. With 272 members this year, Minnetonka is far surpassing its like-minded business counterparts, and it’s only in its third year of existence.

Last weekend, 95 of those members competed at the Minnesota state DECA competition in Minneapolis— and four of those students have earned the opportunity to compete at the 2011 International Career Development Conference in Orlando next month.

Those moving on are: Rachel Moore, a 12th grader who took first place in DECA’s Principles of Business & Administration event, 12th grader Hannah Worrell, who took first place in the Principles of Marketing event, and Alex Purnell and Taylor Penzel, who together earned a top spot in the Hospitality Services Team Role Play event.

In order to qualify for the competition, students had to finish in the top three of their specific competition. At the state competition, MHS students competed individually or in small teams, in 30 different events. Each event included some version of a business role play or prepared written business plan – ranging in topics such as sports marketing to restaurant management. Each student completed a 100 question marketing test. A combination of scores from the role play and the marketing test determined the winners. In years past, 11 MHS students have competed internationally.  

The purpose of DECA is to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. In addition to competitions, the MHS DECA team spends time doing community service, attending leadership conferences and organizing other events such as the May Madness Teacher Basketball Tournament and a Red Bull Social for its members.

“When you have a student who says ‘I just had an interview for an internship and it was a piece of cake because of DECA.’ That’s when it’s really fun,” says Erik Sill, MHS’ business department chair and DECA advisor.