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Montezuma’s new DECA Chapter excels at district competition
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MONTEZUMA — The new Distributive Education Clubs of America chapter at Montezuma is already showing momentum. Four high school students brought home top honors from a Nov. 20 district competition at Simpson College.
Briar Simpson earned third place in Principles of Marketing, and Alexa Rose and the team of Elizabeth DeJong and Taylor Wilcox were named district finalists and recognized on stage with honorable mentions.
“We had a great experience at our first DECA competition as a school,” said Kevin Gartman, DECA sponsor and business education teacher at Montezuma.
“While there are many levels of competitions, including projects and papers, our students in our chapter are focused on the role-play competitions. Students in role-play competitions are given 10 minutes to analyze a case study that is new to them and prepare notes to handle a role-play conversation with a judge.”
The judge may be a boss, a new employee or an angry customer.
Students are assessed on their ability to showcase business knowledge of designated standards as well as their ability to communicate clearly, think critically and answer questions from the judge.
“These role play scores are combined with multiple-choice test scores to create a total competition score, to which they are compared against their peers,” Gartman said.
The Montezuma DECA Chapter has 11 members and is looking to add more students.
Schools joining Montezuma at district competition were ACGC, ADM, Bondurant-Farrar, Carlisle, Colfax-Mingo, Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln, Dallas Center-Grimes, Newton, PCM, Southeast Polk, Urbandale, and WDM Valley.
“Students have grown so much in their critical thinking and self-confidence in this last month of preparation,” said Gartman. “I can’t wait to watch our kids grow from today to mid-February, while hoping to add some more students to the mix before state competition.”
All students will compete at the DECA State Competition Feb. 16 at Southeast Polk High School followed by results and conference sessions at the FFA Enrichment Center in Ankeny Feb. 17.
