From March 1-3, 2019, Midlothian High School DECA State Leadership Conference (SLC) qualifiers traveled to Virginia Beach, Virginia, filled with a tremendous amount of excitement for the impending competition. SLC is always a big event for Midlo DECA and a weekend that many students never forget. Not only do they compete against students from many other Virginia schools, but they also spend time with each other, make new friendships, create great memories, and learn about business and marketing. This year, DECA sponsor, Mrs. Carolyn Manheim, and CTE teacher and chaperone, Mr. Steve Scherer, brought the following DECA members with them to the annual State Leadership Competition: Chris Sawyer, Derek Christmas, Will Morris, Thomas Gray, Ben McCormack, Ben Wrobel, Matt Shea, Lauren Hensley, Da-Lan Pham, Jakob Marshall, Kyle Kuennen, Seth Grossman, Casey Steed, Jake Childers, Braeden Berger, and Maria Rivera.

DECA focuses on marketing, so any student who joins DECA must enroll in a business/marketing class, in accordance to Virginia DECA rules. The club provides an opportunity for students to experience life as an entrepreneur, an inventor, or a marketing planner. At DECA competitions, like SLC, the students face difficult tasks involving business/marketing problems, and they create plans to solve the problems. The issues range from how to bring in more customers to a store on a day that lacks its usual traffic to how to compete with a similar store in the same shopping center. Throughout the year, Mrs. Manheim also hosts different catered social events for club members and sponsors community service activities. Sign-ups for DECA do not begin again until next school year, but since scheduling is underway,  anyone interested in DECA should sign up for a marketing class to be eligible.

Upon arrival at the beach, the students spent time preparing for their events, as well as chatting and playing games with each other during their free time. In addition to this, they dined at local restaurants, such as Dough Boys, an annual Midlo DECA tradition. Jake Childers shares, “The DECA competition was such a great time, and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go. I loved competing and meeting lots of new people.” The DECA members also spent much of the competition in the hotel convention center where the competition took place. Ben McCormack describes his experience at SLC as “life changing” as he received a medal in Human Resources Management.

Following the competition, the competitors once again gathered in the convention center to learn who would advance the ICDC. Congratulations to the following students, who qualified for the DECA International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Jakob Marshall, Accounting Applications

Ben Wrobel, Personal Financial Literacy

Da-Lan Pham, Retail Merchandising 

Will Morris, Entrepreneurship 

Ben Wrobel comments on his success at the competition, sharing, “It was encouraging to see so many people who are dedicated to competing. I never thought I would do as well as I did, and I am looking forward to going to Orlando for a once in a lifetime event.” Jakob Marshall exclaims, “It was a really fun experience, but it required a lot of work. I want to thank Mrs. Manheim for the opportunity and Mrs. Mullins for being an awesome accounting teacher.”

Midlo DECA experienced immense success at the DECA State Leadership Conference and will surely continue to excel at the international level in April.