They learn business skills for the real world
BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer

KATHY CHANG Talia Woods (l-r), Luis Torres, Tom Chmiel and Dasha Mishina at the New Jersey DECA Central Region Blue Conference at Middlesex County College.

EDISON — High school students from all around the county participated in the New Jersey DECA (Marketing Education Clubs of America) Central Region Blue Conference at Middlesex County College last week.

“There are 1,700 students who participate from the central region,” said James Jaworski, DECA’s New Jersey chairman.

The students are split up into two days at the conference.

DECA, which started in 1944, is a co-curricular student organization for students who are involved in marketing and related classes in secondary or post-secondary schools. It offers competitive events, conferences and activities at the local, state and national levels.

Students who want to participate in DECA prepare for the conference in the marketing and business classes at their school or after school as a club. The conference involves the material learned in class.

“We practice role-playing and marketing terminology with the students,” said Thomas Chmiel, an adviser at Colonia High School in Woodbridge.

The mission of DECA Inc. is to enhance the co-curricular education of students with interest in marketing, management and entrepreneurship. DECA helps students to develop skills and competence for marketing careers, to build self-esteem, to experience leadership and to practice community service.

“Not only are the kids learning, but these kids are learning how to dress professionally, present material professionally, proper handshaking and how to carry yourself; and also it’s a social thing, where these kids meet kids from other schools,” Chmiel said.

Students choose from various categories such as accounting to fashion merchandising.

The students can work as a team or individually. They receive a scenario and have an allotted time to brainstorm and to present their scenario to the judge, Jaworski said.

After that they take a test, he said.

“When they meet with the judge, it’s like they are going on a job interview,” said Jaworski. “The top 12 in each category will go onto the state conference.”

DECA is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian association of students, teachers and administrators, and is recognized and endorsed by all 50 state departments of education and the U.S. Department of Education.

Only seniors usually participate in DECA, but some high schools have opened it up to juniors and sophomores, like Colonia High School in Woodbridge.

“I had 39 students sign up and 30 students showed up today,” said Chmiel. “It’s probably nerves.”

Talia Woods and Luis Torres participated in DECA last year as seniors at Colonia High School, and made it to the state conference.

Woods participated in the food marketing category, and placed second in the role-playing and third in the test, and Torres placed first in the Quiz Bowl.

“We didn’t know what to expect, but after our first role play we kind of got to know what the judges expected us to do,” said Woods.

Woods, a store manager, and Torres, a freshman in college studying business management, came back to work as supervisors for the DECA conference.

Dasha Mishina, a senior at Colonia, participated last year, and placed third in the apparel and accessories category, and placed first in the Quiz Bowl. This year she is participating in the Quiz Bowl and the fashion-merchandising category.

“I’m looking to go into a career with fashion merchandising, and with DECA it looks good on my résumé,” said Mishina.

The conference has competitions for special education students also.

“They will do a lot of customer service like bagging groceries,” said Jaworski. “We had one autistic kid who bagged groceries so neatly that we couldn’t get the groceries out of the bag.”

DECA offers student scholarships to Berkeley College, The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Johnson & Wales University, Northwood University, Shenandoah University and University of Houston.

For more information visit www.deca.org.