With business plans polished and presentations practiced, members of Stevenson’s DECA chapter are preparing to take their ideas to the national stage.
DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) helps students interested in business, marketing and entrepreneurship develop professional skills through competitions and role-play scenarios. Stevenson’s chapter has qualified for nationals before, but students believe this year’s group has the potential to go even further.
For many students, DECA provides a place to connect with others who share the same ambitions.
“I think DECA is a great place for young entrepreneurs to really expand their ideas and practices and find business partners and learn better business,” John Almurani ’26 said. “It’s a good way to manage a business better to become a true entrepreneur.”
Although Almurani did not qualify for states this year, he continues to support the program and plans to return stronger next season.
“I did really good on the 100-question test,” Almurani said. “There’s also a role-playing aspect of the event, which we did okay on. But when I looked at the score, my partner Vansh Bughra got a 32 out of 100 on the MCQ and it brought our average down, so we didn’t make it to states.”
Despite the setback, Almurani remains optimistic about the future.
While some students are already looking ahead to next year, those advancing are focusing on preparation for nationals.
“My strategy is meeting up with my teammate, Anthony Zajac,” Michael Twal said. “We’re going to practice our performance and study for the test by practicing questions that are provided on the DECA website.”
Last year, Twal came close but did not qualify for nationals.
“This year, me and my teammate, out of the many people that were in our group, were one of the few that made it at states,” Twal said.
DECA advisor Heather Gabriel said she is proud of the group’s performance, especially with so many first-year members.
“We have gone to nationals several times over the last few years,” Gabriel said. “We usually have a group that advances to states, and then the school store project typically advances to nationals.”
Gabriel said this year’s results show strong promise for the future of the program.
“So far, I’m pretty impressed,” Gabriel said. “There were a lot of new students, so it was their first time doing any of this. The fact that out of about 20 students we had 13 to 15 place is a good amount of student success.”
