Four teams from the Upper School DECA club qualified for the state conference on the strength of their Jan. 14 showing at the regional competition.  

The club was formed in 2021 by Thomas Rowley ’24. Formerly known as the Distributive Education Clubs of America, it provides students with career development opportunities and a range of business-related competitions. 

For the first three years, Rowley’s club focused mainly on the Stock Market Game, where students invest virtual money into real-world stocks. But this year marked a significant shift, with eight students competing in five teams in the January regional conference. Four of those teams will move on to the state conference. 

“I’m very happy for everyone who competed,” said sophomore Rahul Singhal, current president of the Greenhill DECA club. “This is what I’ve really wanted to do since I came to Greenhill. That’s what DECA is really about – going to the conventions and competing.” 

Competitions 

DECA offers a wide variety of competitions across business fields, with students engaging in written exams, role-playing activities, and case study events. Some club members compete as individuals while others compete as teams. 

Junior Jin Huang, competing solo, and sophomores Nikita Bhasin and Alex Han, as a team, entered the Business Operations Research Event. All three competed in the Sports and Entertainment Marketing category at the regional conference. They had to develop a strategic plan to incorporate artificial intelligence in a local business or organization. 

“I was first considering going into music and entertainment, but then I realized I could go bigger by researching the [Dallas Mavericks],” said Huang. “Especially since I had a connection through my friend.” 

Huang chose the Dallas Mavericks for her project, while Bhasin and Han worked on creating a plan for the Wize Computing Academy. Each team created a written document presenting their research and prepared an oral presentation to deliver their findings. 

“It was eye-opening to tour the Mavs facility with the director of analytics,” said Huang. “I got to see how much AI is already integrated and what I could do to add to it.” 

Singhal, along with sophomore Mahedhar Sunkara, participated in the Buying and Merchandising Team Decision-Making competition, which includes both an exam and impromptu role-playing. A separate team, consisting of sophomores Tej Sachdeva and Vikram Sampath, also competed in the same competition. 

Senior Max Johnson competed in both an exam and an impromptu role-playing competition. 

“We weren’t sure what to expect,” said Singhal. “But we tried to do little things like making business cards and a slogan to stand out to the judges.” 

Johnson, competing solo, was asked to explain the importance of savings accounts. 

“I was glad that the topic this year was something I knew so much about,” Johnson said. “I really went into the weeds on interest rates and used the full 10 minutes talking to the judge.” 

State Conference 

The Texas State Career Development Conference will take place on March 6-8 in Dallas. After that, if students qualify and wish to advance, they will compete at 2025 DECA International Career Development Conference on April 26–29. 

Looking ahead, many Greenhill DECA students say they are eager to compete. 

“I’m excited to go to state because I want to see if I can win,” said Huang. 

The club, now that it includes competitions, has seen a jump in numbers, according to older members. 

“It’s been cool to see DECA grow,” said Johnson. “In the past two years, we’ve had around 10 to 15 active members. This year, if everybody were allowed to participate, it probably would have been closer to 25 or 30.” 

Many of the “career clusters” within DECA are business oriented and include  Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Finance. 

Singhal says he sees the value of DECA beyond the competition itself.  

“DECA is so much more than just business competitions,” Singhal said. “It teaches you how to speak publicly in a limited amount of time and think under pressure. There are so many events tailored to different careers.” 

The club’s advisor, Director of Finance Matt Martinson, also participated in the regional competition as a virtual judge.   

“It’s a good skill set to have,” Martinson said about the competition. “It teaches you how to talk to stranger, how to interview and all that stuff.” 

 He has seen how the students’ hard work is paying off.  

“They’ve been incredibly self-motivated,” said Martinson. “As their advisor, I didn’t have to do much outside of facilitating. It’s clear they’re committed to succeeding.”