Fall Leadership Development Conference: Learning about DECA

(left to right: Brandon, Arjun, Shauna, Sanjuna, Diana, Devin, Leah, all leadership recruits)

From Friday, November 9th through Sunday the 11th, DECA Leaders and Leadership recruits travelled to Anaheim California for a leadership conference.

For the first time in Sage Hill history, the Sage Business Club is competing in DECA (Distributed Education Clubs of America) rather than FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America). The change comes in hopes of finding a more engaging and exciting competitive program.

As part of the DECA program, the Fall Leadership Development Conference focuses on cultivating valuable leadership skills and career planning. 21st century skills such as critical thinking and thoughtful discussion are replacing the previous emphasis on memorization and data driven, robotic skills.

The weekend consisted of multiple high energy ceremonies, many small workshops for hands on engagement, and energetic speakers to motivate and inspire DECA delegates.

Three conference game "tracks" of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Hospitality were offered and a total of 12 Sage Hill DECA students attended.

Junior Brandon Wong attended the Leadership track, and remarked that it was “quite incredible. [They] learned handshakes for 30 minutes, walked around and gave people high fives, [and even] gave each other back massages." Brandon's task included learning about a communication technique of "going to the source" rather than spreading rumors or gossiping to other people. He attended a speech, created and developed a poster with students from another school, and then presented this poster to a panel of judges.

All in all, the weekend was a great way to gain insight into the new practices of DECA and excite leadership recruits about the opportunities that lie in their future of the Sage Business Club.

Please refer to the below links for more information.

DECA website: https://www.deca.org/

LDC website: https://californiadeca.org/conferences/fall-ldc/

LCD 2019 Schedule and Information Guide: https://californiadeca.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Fall-LDC-Overview.pdf