Over the past week, the phrase “DECA” was tossed around a lot, but not many people knew what it meant. DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America, and is an international association of marketing students. It is open to all students taking marketing, and offers several competitions and conferences throughout the year.

Last weekend, Langley sent 39 students – all of whom qualified at districts – to DECA’s state conference and competition in Norfolk. The students competed in categories such as Finance, Selling, Hotel Marketing, and Fast Food Restaurant Management. For the competition, each student was required to take a lengthy multiple choice test, as well as individually go in front of a judge and have ten minutes to read a problem and present a solution. However, these judges weren’t just parents or volunteers from off the street – the judges came from high fashion industries like Betsey Johnson, adding to the pressure on the competitors to perform well.

“It’s really important that everyone not only creates a plausible solution to the problem, but also a creative one,” said Fashion Marketing teacher and Langley DECA coordinator Ms. Poythress said.

This year especially, everyone was very anxious to find out who won in their category, because Nationals is in Orlando, Florida. As always it was very competitive to get one of the top 8 spots which allowed you to move on to Nationals, but all of the Langley Students were very supportive of one another,” said junior, Nicole Zaccack. 

This year, Langley did particularly well. Out of the 39 students, almost every one received medals for either their role plays or their test scores. And many of the students who competed made it to Nationals this year. Next stop in Fashion Marketing’s road to success, DECA Nationals.