For some Lake Orion High School clubs and teams, their seasons are coming to a close. For some others, things are just getting started.
But for the DECA club, there’s always something going on.
The DECA organization is an international association of high school and college students studying marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality and marketing sales and service.
At LOHS, the team is around 75 members strong, and runs the school store on a daily basis, among other things.
Last week, 25 LOHS DECA members attended the two-day State Leadership Conference in Lansing.
‘We talked mainly about the upcoming competitions, networking and leadership,? said Danielle Lawrence of the conference, which attracted more than 600 students.
Lawrence said a relatively equal number of sophomores, juniors and seniors represented the school at the conference and there were plenty of college vendors on hand to talk with the students about their futures.
In the immediate future for the LOHS DECA club is a trip to New York City.
Lawrence said about 25 Lake Orion students are going on the six-day trip (from Nov. 14-19).
The marketing conference will include trips to the New York Stock Exchange and a tour of a network television studio. The students will also attend a pair of Broadway shows.
Also on the horizon for the team is the District competition, which will take place at Waterford Kettering High School right after the holiday break.
That competition includes tests on both basic marketing and a specific career aspect. Those test results are combined with a judged role playing portion to arrive at a student’s final score.
Last year, the team had two students compete at the national level – and they’re hoping for even more this time around.
‘There are scholarships and a lot of other things associated with DECA too,? said Dave McDonald.
The LOHS DECA club also gives back to the community, as part of its annual partnership with the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Each year, the club creates a fundraising plan to raise money locally for the MDA.
Lawrence and McDonald said schools can win awards and recognition from the state and national levels of DECA, based on such fundraising efforts.
On a daily basis, the club runs the school store, which funds about half of the organization’s annual expenses.
With a large group, Lawrence and McDonald said practicing things like the role plays are much easier.
At the competitive levels, there are more than three-dozen potential careers to choose from, all of which offer preparation for the real world.
DECA previously stood for Distributive Education Clubs of America, but the acronym no longer applies and the DECA is now referred to as ‘an association of marketing students.?
More than 165 high schools across the state have DECA groups.