The DECA or Distributive Education Club of America is a business oriented club which prepares students who wish to become entrepreneurs or work in the business world with a series of tests in many different fields. These fields include marketing, finance, hospitality and management where the students participating can pick their top three of these categories and hope to get their first or second choice. 

Normally in January, the members would go to Suffolk Community College to compete at a regional level in which they can take part in many different competitions. As Mr. Cullen, the advisor of DECA here in Lindenhurst explains, “You can take a 100 question test in a particular subject area.  You can also write and deliver your own speech.  You could also do a mock job interview, sales demonstration.  If you are artistic you could make an advertisement on a poster board.” However this year with the pandemic, the event in Suffolk Community College was closed which made many of the students have to opt to do the test. They would prepare for this by using past tests and studying off of the questions. 

In past years the winners of the regional event would be eligible to compete in the State Career Conference. Unfortunately that may not be able to happen this year and the students may have to end their journey with the regional event. If the students can not go on to the State Career Conference, Mr. Cullen states, “ I was hoping to do some team building activities, but with COVID I am not sure just yet. We also will be promoting Business Courses around the school and to middle school students.”

After the DECA’s hard work with the regional tests, we hope that they keep the same energy throughout the year and even to the State Career Conference if it is allowed to open up again.

Here are the list of awards for DECA regionals:

Nicole Cardino- Apparel & Accessories Marketing Series

Patrick Lopez- Business Finance Series Event

Oleksandra Blyshchak- Business Services Marketing

James Villota- Business Services Marketing

Joseph Simile- Entrepreneurship Series

James Beloff & Brendan Monahan- Hospitality Services Team Decision Making

Daniel Poplowski- Human Resources Management Series Event

Veronica Merchelski- Marketing Communications Series

Rachel Thangavelu- Personal Financial Literacy

Angelina Mavros- Principles of Finance

Broc Brown- Principles of Hospitality & Tourism

Julia Topsidakis- Principles of Hospitality & Tourism

Lauren Walker- Principles of Marketing

Sean Garvey- Quick Service Restaurant Management

Michelle Kurianowicz- Retail Merchandising.