Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) sent 14 students into downtown Detroit for their states competition from March 13-16. Students were first given a multiple choice style test and then a business situation to propose their ideas to a judge for points.
Paul Kaminski ’24 and Cedar Rihani ’25 were two students who gained enough points to qualify for the national competition later this year. Advisor George Formicola has helped the group with business-related questions throughout the school year.
“We did pretty well this year. We had two people that went to nationals last year and we have two again this year. I’m proud of the six or seven finalists we had as well,” Formicola said. “Grosse Pointe South’s name was featured a lot for different finalists, and so it was exciting to see that hard work from the students to be on display in front of the whole state.”
In preparation for competitions, students work through business-related prompts from a website through DECA’s organization to help them practice for different scenarios and exam questions or to compare different solutions to different problems.
There are many different topics that students choose from. They are tested on a prompt at states to gain a specific aspect and build their knowledge from there. Jonah Tenkinck ’25 competed at states in Detroit and learned a lot from the experience.
“DECA has a lot of good opportunities that students can utilize like working on communication skills, team building and overall knowledge with different topics,” Tenkinck said. “States was really fun to attend and compete at. South didn’t have an actual business department until this year so we are behind other schools.”
DECA usually meets around twice a month with Formicola and has a heavy emphasis on individual hard work to be successful. When competing against others at events like districts or states, it’s important to be well prepared for whatever comes your way. Overall, DECA is a wonderful club that students can benefit from without a huge time commitment. Lucas Bower ’25 has been a consistent member with DECA for over a year.
“Our DECA program is actually a lot smaller than most schools, so it’s very exciting to see other students from our program qualify for national events,” Bower said. “I would recommend DECA to absolutely anybody. There’s not much prior knowledge needed to be a significant member of the club. You don’t even have to be necessarily interested in business and it’s a super fun time.”
