While mini-competitions are in the rearview mirror, DECA continues to find new ways of preparing for district competition come February. That event, held at the St. Louis Mills Mall, is the ultimate test of the skills that the society of marketing students acquire during the school year. Recently, the marketing classes have been practicing using a different strategy.

That strategy is the use of Competition University, a web-based program that touts itself as “Where to Prepare for DECA Competitive Events.” According to DECA Advisor Angela Syron, the program gives the students a good taste of the real thing.

“It is a web-based program where each student can pick any event,” Syron said. “You can pick the individual events or team events and practice.”

These things work, according to senior DECA member Doug Cochran.

“It really helps you practice for [district] competition,” said Cochran. “It really helps me. I believe it does ready the class for competition.”

That is what the site shoots for. Set up by Custom Resources, Syron explained that Competition University is very accurate to the real thing.

“It is made by Tara Richardson,” Mrs. Syron said, “who is actually a former marketing teacher.”

The fact that the site is made by someone with a DECA background (Richardson is a former DECA Advisor, incidentally from Missouri) helps create a very accurate depiction of a competition. According to Cochran, it helps students focus in on their particular topic.

“You can focus on what specific topic you are doing in the upcoming competition,” Cochran said. He also added that you can practice mock role plays, an integral aspect of DECA, using the site.

In addition to competition preparations, DECA is still hard at work in other areas of their work. The officers are meeting today to finalize plans for one of the most anticipated DECA events of the year: DECA Week.

“We’ll have spirit days every day of next week,” Syron said, excitedly. “We’ll also be doing the Golden Ticket again.”

Won by senior Chris Stagl last year, the Golden Ticket is very sought after by students. While everyone has to pay a dollar for DECA cookies, the Golden Ticket winner gets a free bag of cookies each day.