Shannon Yan
On January 16 to 18, over one thousand students, teachers, and alumni assembled at the Marriot Hotel for the 2015 NORCAL DECA Career Development Conference. The DECA members of high schools from Fairfield to San Lorenzo participated in various events and competitions in the fields of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA is a business-oriented organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in the fields of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.
After a 100 problem written test on Friday night, the students head back to their hotel rooms to prepare for next day’s events. Events included role plays (where one was given a problem to solve and present with 10 minutes preparation), prepared presentations, and team events. With the liberal curfew of 11:30 pm, students could go as they pleased, whether it was shopping at the nearby shopping center, or hopping on a bus to go watch a movie at the cinemas. Saturday night was also a time of entertainment: the DECA Dance was exciting and it was great fun mingling with friends.
Sunday was the final day of the conference and the day of the awards ceremony. After waking up early to pack up their stuff, students gathered at the Bishop Ranch Ballroom for the mini awards ceremony before eating at the banquet breakfast. Afterwards, the students and the now-arriving parents joined once again for the Grand Awards Ceremony where trophies were given out to the top competitors for each event.
