On Nov. 6 at Oakton High School, 51 McLean students competed in the District Leadership Competition for District 12. Twenty-four students from McLean finished top 3 in their respective competition categories, qualifying for the Virginia DECA State Leadership Contest, which will take place from March 1-3, 2024. DECA is a student competition and club which tests elements of entrepreneurship, finance and marketing.
In most competition categories, students take a 100 question multiple choice exam and participate in a role-play scenario where they are given 10 minutes to solve a business-related problem and another 10 minutes to present their solution to a judge. The club worked on their role-play skills leading up to districts in order to have a successful competition.
“Our officers held practice sessions to run through how the [competition] process works and what would be asked of them on competition day,” McLean DECA sponsor Debra Dove said. “Then, [we] practiced a role-play situation with the students, [in which] I showed an example of what a role-play scenario contains and let them take some time to think through possible solutions and discuss.”
McLean DECA officer and senior Nico Christofferson placed first in the entrepreneurship category with a score of 272 out of 300. As a second-year DECA member and leader in the club, Christofferson wanted to lead by example with a successful start to the DECA season.
“Last year, I placed 4th at districts, so I didn’t quite meet the benchmark, but I had a team event for states and made it all the way up to internationals, so I felt pretty confident in my ability to do well [this year],” Christofferson said. “I was nervous coming in, but getting the results in front of the rest of the club was amazing. It was great to start off the season strong.”