Superintendent meets with DECA students

School Superintendent Shelley Arrott met with DECA students Ash Patel and Bradley Robinson to discuss upcoming DECA projects and ways to collaborate on positivity throughout the district.

DECA is a high school organization for students enrolled in the Marketing Education Program. DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.

“Opening night started as a sports marketing opportunity for my Marketing Fundamentals class,” said DECA Adviser Heather Monks.  “We sell sponsorships for the event and use the money we get to put on a huge community event for the first home basketball game.

“This year the event is Dec. 12,” Monks said.  “We give 250 free shirts to the first fans in the door and give free giveaways all night long. The Thunder girls have performed the past two years.  This year one goal is to get a car to give away for a half-court shot.  We are working on that now.  We promote the event, so the first game will draw a huge crowd and gain interest in our basketball program.”

“The ‘Spread the Word to End the Word’ campaign started by one of my students, Cash Vanbuskirk, four years ago after my daughter Chandler was born with Down syndrome,” Monks said  “It is a national youth campaign that raises awareness for people to not use the “R” word (retard) as slang and to think about people first language.  We have a community block party between the high school and the “Hutch” area.  We have a DJ, booths to visit, free tailgating type food, snow cones, dancing, Amtrykes (special needs bikes donated by Ambucs), petting zoo and tons of activities all free of charge.  The only “fee” is they have to sign the Spread the Word banner pledging to not use this word and get a sticker saying so, then all of the events are free.”

Another event DECA does is a lemonade stand.

“This event is for fifth grade students to learn about entrepreneurship and the importance of small business,”
Monks said. “My students go to the participating school for six weeks and present lessons on entrepreneurship.   After the workshop, the students then run six small businesses around town, usually lemonade stands, and earn money for a community oriented cause.  The small businesses compete against each other and the business with the most overall profits gets a trip to pizza with the high school leaders — which they love!”

Arrott asked the group to work with her on a new project she is implementing called “You Inspire Me” to promote a collaborative, positive culture. More information about this special project will be forthcoming.

Po-Hi DECA has lots of other projects that go on during the year.  Students also do marketing research projects for business, retail promotional plans, sports marketing promotional plans, role play simulations and many more.