Local students take part in DECA competition

Local students were professionally dressed and acting as current or potential employees in job fields such as restaurant management and marketing at Concord High School this week.

The school and Jay M. Robinson High School co-hosted the Marketing Competitive Events Conference for District 6, a DECA competition, on Thursday.

In addition to Concord and Robinson, Union County’s Weddington, Cuthbertson, Sun Valley and Marvin Ridge high schools also participated.

DECA is an organization for marketing students where they can take objectives they learn in the classroom and put them into place in real world, business scenarios, said Hillary Steere, DECA advisor at Marvin Ridge High and the district representative.

“Students take that knowledge and solve problems,” Steere said. “They are typical situations you’d find in the business industry.”

Before the competition, students signed up to participate in a role play scenario set in one of five areas: apparel and accessories, principles of marketing, quick service restaurant management, retail merchandising and sports and entertainment marketing.

One of the role plays involved the student acting as a candidate applying for a sales associate position.

Each student had 10 minutes to learn the role they were playing and prepare for it before they began. They then entered a classroom, where they presented their ideas, in their role, to the judges.

The judges at the competition were local business professionals who also played a role in the scenario and asked the students questions after their presentation before scoring the students.

Jan Jordan, admissions representative for Johnson & Wales University, has served as a judge in the competition for 13 years and said the scenarios during the role plays are very realistic.

She said one of the role plays she participated in for a past competition involved her pretending to be an angry customer, and the student had to respond to that situation while portraying the employee.

“These are going to be your future leaders in the world of marketing and sales,” Jordan said. “It’s a pleasure to work with students like this. I look forward to it.”

Several students agreed the competition was a good way to prepare for the future. And even though some said they were nervous prior to it, they said they felt ready after preparing with their DECA clubs.

“I think (the competition) will give me confidence to think fast in situations I’m going to be in, in the future,” said Brittanie Lowe, a senior and member of DECA at Concord.

Senior Tiffany Shine, who is a member of DECA at Robinson, said the competition would give her and other students face-to-face time with people in higher management and help with public speaking.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to do this as students,” Shine said. “It’s a stepping stone.”

In addition to role playing, the students also took an online test on marketing information two weeks before. After the competition on Thursday night, awards were presented to students based on their role playing, online test and for a combined score in the role playing and online test.

In the retail merchandising category role play, Robinson students Tiffany Shine and Olivia Newell placed in top five, and Shine earned fifth place for her combined score in the category, according to Liz Poole, business and marketing teacher and DECA advisor at Concord.

Fellow Robinson student Nic Isom placed in the top five for the online test in sports and entertainment marketing and won second place for combined score in the category.

In the principles of marketing area, Robinson students Megan Burr, Thomas Cox, Jeremy Quesada and Ebony Carter placed in the top eight for the online test. Concord’s Harmony Houston also placed in the top eight for the online test in the category.

Robinson’s Ebony Carter, Justine Damiani and Andre Aquiar and Concord’s Harmony Houston placed in the top eight for the role plays in principles of marketing.

Robinson’s Megan Burr earned first place for combined scores in principles of marketing, while Robinson’s Jeremy Quesada earned second place and Robinson’s Ebony Carter earned fourth place. Concord’s Harmony Houston earned third place in her combined score for principles of marketing.

Contact reporter Jessica Groover: 704-789-9152