DECA Goes to Districts Wednesday, March 03, 2010 By Jessica Parra Senior DECA member Darren Adams holding all the trophies Cameron DECA won. - Advertising On Tuesday, February 9, 25 CHS DECA students and DECA Advisor Mrs. Stephanie Williams climbed on a bus and headed to the KCI Expo Center for DECA Districts along with 17 other schools. Students who are in DECA, and were interested in competing, chose a topic and a partner and started a project.   To compete the students have to write a minimum of a 20 page project, maximum of 30, and have a 5-10 minute presentation. They also have to be part of DECA.    "They [the students] have to be a member of DECA, then we work on an event that suits their interest, and from there we start getting prepared," said Mrs. Williams. She is the DECA Sponsor and has been for 11 years now. She had to work at the Tuesday competition. "All advisors are assigned a responsibility, an event or section of events to supervise. And because I've been doing this so long I am in charge of a group of events," said Mrs. Williams, "so I'm working while the kids are competing."    16 out of the 25 CHS DECA competitors placed at districts and they are:   -Lindsay Thompson and Allison Zeikle- First Place, Business Services Operations Research -Drucilla Fletcher and Tiffany Hamilton -First Place; Darren Adams and Corbin Bogle- Second Place, Financial Operations Research -Natalie Beers- First Place; Amanda Lakey- Second Place, Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research -Sarah Fritz and Halee Tharp- First Place, Community Service Project -Ashley Nied and Kelly Thompson- First Place, Entrepreneurship Promotion Project -Rashelle Burdick and Kelsey Salmon- First Place, Literacy Promotion Project -Jordan Lovejoy and Kyle Smith- First Place, Public Relations Project   Congratulations to these 16 students who now get to go to the State Career Development Conference in March.   "We are going to State March 14-16 at Lake of the Ozarks," said Mrs.Williams. "There will be around 220 schools there, about 1800 kids. They will present their same projects to a different panel of judges."   Seniors Jordan Lovejoy and Kyle Smith's Public Relations Project was the mock car accident the High School students witnessed last semester.   "It's [State] exactly the same thing as Districts only with all 9 districts in the top 3 from each PRP [Public Relations Project] that we took. We compete against them rather than just our district," said Jordan.   While this is Jordan's second year competing, this is a first time for Senior  Halee Tharp. "Sarah Fritz and I did the Community Service Project and we helped with the Toys For Tots drive," said Halee. "I'm excited to go to State!"    Twenty-five CHS DECA students went to Districts to compete; sixteen of them placed. Now those 16 now get to go to the State Career Development Conference in March at Lake of the Ozarks. Good Luck, DECA!

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