High school students Andre Crump, Jordan Harden, Savoy Smith, Timothy Sutton and Jeremy Jordan of the Ferguson-Florissant School District advanced to national competition in business and entrepreneurship at the 2014 DECA International Career Development Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Crump, Harden and Smith won their district competition and placed among the top four in the state of Missouri to qualify for national competition. Jordan and Sutton placed second in their district competition and second in Missouri to qualify.
As part of the marketing curriculum in the district, DECA, formerly Distributive Educational Clubs of America, prepares students for future careers in business. The purpose of DECA “is to expose students to real-life business and marketing experiences through competitions, campaigns and networking,” says McCluer North teacher, Jacob Lapinski.
“It allows students to practice interviewing skills, build on their teamwork skills, and learn to market themselves,” Lapinski said.
“DECA plays a huge role in helping our students develop the critical thinking skills that are needed to be successful in life,” said McCluer South-Berkeley teacher Raghib Muhammad. “Our student members leverage their DECA experience to become academically prepared, community-oriented, professionally responsible leaders.”
Competing against more than 10,000 students vying for international honors at the conference, the students were required to simulate real-life scenarios in front of business experts in order to advance.
“One role play consisted of a scenario in which a customer was injured by an avalanche of eager customers,” Lapinski said. “They had to figure out how to compensate the customer and come up with some public relations policies to overcome the situation.”
In another simulation, Muhammad said, students “had 20 minutes to present a brief concept paper explaining the opportunity that exists in the marketplace and how their innovation will meet the needs of consumers.”
While McCluer North students competed as a business ethics team in the decision-making event, McCluer South-Berkeley students participated in the Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan Event. “This event involves the idea generation and opportunity recognition needed to take advantage of market opportunities to introduce a new business, product or service,” Muhammad said.
For several days, students, advisors, businesspeople and alumni gathered to participate in a variety of leadership and career-advancing competitions designed to test students’ academic understanding and skills development. Students had the chance to talk with “professionals, go to workshops, meet tons of students and network,” said Lapinski.
According to Muhammad, this year’s competition “consisted of individuals and/or teams demonstrating National Curriculum Standards with the purpose of developing and employing the key skills of analysis, application of knowledge, creative problem solving and logical presentation.”
Muhammad said he was pleased to have had a hand in preparing students for college and careers. “But most of the credit goes to my students, who stayed after school almost every Wednesday during the school year to prepare,” he said.
Lapinski said, “It’s a student-driven organization; they make it what it is.”
“We are proud of the excellent accomplishments of these five dedicated students in our DECA program,” said acting Superintendent Lawrence Larrew. “Through hard work and dedication, they are applying what they learn in school to future careers in the highly competitive arena of business and entrepreneurialism.”
Industry professionals interested in being DECA guest speakers should contact Raghib Muhammad at rmuhammad@fergflor.org .
