DECA departs to Disneyland

Holt’s business club takes a trip to Orlando to compete in a national event

After spring break, students don’t usually plan more vacations, but DECA has planned one to Orlando, Florida to compete in a national competition. DECA is a club offered at Holt that focuses on business and marketing. It involves multiple competitions and is closing to an end after this event. Teachers Dan Knechtel and Jeffrey Shane, the advisors for Holt’s DECA team, are bringing five students on the trip to Nationals.

The DECA team has competed in two competitions this year. First, they competed at Regionals, and then they moved onto States. From there, they have made it to Nationals and are attending the event over the next several days.

The DECA team shows off their awards from States. Five of the competitors got to move on to Nationals.

State champion, senior Jason Kline, is competing for sports entertainment marketing. State finalists, seniors Taylor Foster and Grace Ottinger, are competing for the entrepreneurship team. Seniors Maura Gnass and Nathan Fox are presenting to judges to certify the Holt school store as a National DECA retail store.

The trip as a whole is going to take six days, starting on Apr. 26. There are a variety of events filling the schedule for the group, including a free two-day pass to Disney.

Saturday night is the opening ceremony for the national competition. The group will be competing on Sunday and Monday of that week, Apr. 28 & 29. The competition starts with a 100-question exam and moves on to roleplay after that. Roleplay involves the contestants creating and presenting a unique solution to a certain business scenario given by the judges.

“I think [Nationals] will be really competitive and a big challenge, but I think it’s gonna be a great experience overall,” said Kline.

Tues. Apr. 30 includes the award ceremony to wrap up the entire event. After all of the competitions and other plans, the team will be returning back home on May 1.