As the year comes to a close, DECA reflects on the competitions. “Dream, Design, Dominate,” the slogan for this year, illustrates what WA DECA has done through its multiple competitions and victories this year.

Currently WA DECA had 425 members, making them the largest DECA club in Massachusetts for the third time in a row. They are also the most successful out of all the Massachusetts chapters and have become nationally recognized in the last few years. The club members have won the majority of District and State awards over the last few years.

Every year, DECA attends three major competitions: Districts, States, and Internationals. Districts is usually held at UMass Lowell and all club members attend. Those who do well are able to attend States where around 3,000 high school students compete. If club members qualify for Internationals, they can compete with 19,000 other student representing all 50 U.S. States, Canada, Mexico, China, Guam, Germany, Spain, and several other countries.

At the international level, 33 club members from WA DECA went to Anaheim, California to compete. Out of the 33, two members placed: Krish Sharma, a sophomore who won first in the food marketing category, and Adithya Vellal, a junior who won third in his category. This was the first time WA DECA club members placed at Internationals at an overall event in four years.

Sharma commented on how he felt when he won first place at Internationals for the first time.

“I actually didn’t expect to make it to finals in the first place because I thought I would medal wither on one of the role plays and that would be it but the when I didn’t medal it was like ok at least I made finals and then when they were announcing top ten […] When they announced Massachusetts [as first place] that was really the turning point in how it felt mentally,” said Sharma.

DECA advisor John Rogers reflected on this year and commented on how he looks forward to doing bigger things next year.

“This year went very well. The kids were very successful with the competitions wins and scholarships. We had a lot of kids — underclassmen — perform well, so we are setting ourselves up very well for the future and we are looking for bigger and better things next year,” he said.