Lakeland Regional High School’s DECA students competed and excelled in this year’s DECA state competition in Atlantic City from February 27 to March 1, 2023.

Participants who made it through regionals, a competition that allows members to qualify for Atlantic City, advanced to the state competitions. Moreover, some particular students made sure to make their mark when performing. Isabella Bozan, a Lakeland senior, advanced to the finalist round for professional selling and was rewarded with a medal for her hardwork and determination. Eva Bodnar-Whetstone, sophomore, and Clarissa Kuhn, sophomore, both completed a School Based Enterprise Project in which they received a gold certificate. Additionally, Danielle Reid, another senior, was granted a mini award for her role play in the Accounting Application Series.

Kuhn stated that DECA states was a “great experience” and she was able to “implement [her] business knowledge and presentation skills in real world scenarios.” She went on further to say everyone “always puts in their best effort and does amazing,” especially “Isabella Bozan [who] did an amazing job.”

She also went into detail about her event. Kuhn and her partner, Bodnar-Whetstone, completed an Innovation Plan. Within this event, they had to compose a 15 minute presentation with their ideas, that of which included an executive summary, a problem, customer segments, an unique value proposition, a solution, and a conclusion. With limited time to complete this presentation, Kuhn and her partner generated the idea of “an online educational platform for highschool students that would provide an alternative to expensive tutoring.”

Students also had the task of creating a 45-second video with the prompt of “explaining what DECA was,” advisor Ms. Rachel Chybiki explained. In an interview, she emphasized how great everyone did and “came out of their competitions with high energy and confidence.” In the event of DECA students completing a video for one of the competitions, she couldn’t help but mention how it was put together so well and the fact that it made “[her] emotional because of how proud” she was. She also took the time to “shout out Dani Reid for her mini award” since she wasn’t feeling confident in what was a really great project.

All DECA members competed to the best of their ability in states, where each individual was required to test their ability to develop solutions to problem situations and thoroughly express their ideas in their events. Those LRHS students include Luke Struble, sophomore; Kyle Keyes, junior; and seniors Vlad Bogatov, Molly Murphy, Nathan Bailey, Dominick Vogt, and Colette Hunter.

For the many who do not know what DECA is, the acronym stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America. DECA’s goal is to “improve educational and career opportunities” within marketing, management and entrepreneurship fields that are accessible for students. The organization focuses on helping students to develop business and leadership skills specifically within business through academic conferences and competitions. Overall, it aims to teach students beyond the classroom and help prepare them for “real careers and lifetime skills.”

Overall, students did exceptionally well in competing, putting together ideas, establishing solutions, and in general, thinking outside of the box. They faced challenges under limited time and had to come up with ideas on the spot, truly showing the determination and hard work implemented by these students.