After months of preparation and practice, Central DECA members headed to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont on January 27 to compete in the business organization’s annual high school regional conference.

The categories included Innovation Plan, Principles of Finance, Community Service Project and more. DECA members chose the events they would compete in at the beginning of the year, considering which ones best suited their interests and skills.

At regionals, students competed in those individual or group events, aiming to impress the judges and other DECA members from the surrounding region, which includes about 1,200 members from 30 schools.

Many hours of planning and research at the DECA meetings and their homes went into preparing for regionals, and the competition results showed that.

Christine Bell is a CTE teacher at Central and it is her 11th year as a DECA sponsor.

“We did great,” Bell said. “We had 133 kids compete at regionals, and we have about 80 students moving on to state.”

The students who placed in the top ten in their respective event(s) or performed well enough on their written event will go to the state DECA conference, which will be held at the Hyatt Rosemont next month March 9th to the 11th. From there, students can qualify for the national conference in Anaheim, and ultimately, the international competition. From over 200,000 DECA members across the world, only a select few earn the opportunity to compete at the international conference.

Junior Mahie Gopalka went to nationals in Nashville in 2016 and placed within the top 10 in the Human Resources Management event. At the regional event this year, she placed first in Human Resource Management and fourth for her Innovative Business Plan. She hopes to attend the Anaheim nationals this year as well.

For Gopalka, DECA is more than just an extracurricular activity.

“DECA is such a large part of my high school experience,” Gopalka said. “I’ve met so many people through DECA and not only is it a helpful professional club, but it’s also an incredible and very enjoyable experience.”