DBP DECA Goes International

By Alex Agabap ‘23

ORLANDO, FLORIDA   DBP DECA Students continued their tradition of competitive success at the 2023 DECA International Career Development Conference.

The DECA Club at Bosco is an interesting extracurricular. Despite it being the largest club on campus with almost a quarter of the student body being members, not many people outside the club really know its purpose.

DBP DECA is the co-curricular aspect of the Bosco Business Pathway that aims to support what students learn in the classroom while exposing them to a real world environment. The main events that take place during the year are the three levels of competition: District, State and International.

DECA activities start with the school year, as Club Officers host Information sessions after school and during Freshman Business classes to try to recruit new members. The Club has seen astonishing growth in its six years of existence, going from just over 15 founding members in 2016 to over 170 members this year.

After registering new and returning members, the club looks forward to preparing for competition. Event selection meetings are hosted by grade level to help students decide events in one of the four career clusters – Finance, Hospitality and Tourism, Marketing, and Business Administration and Management.  Students will also learn about different events that take place. DECA competitions are broken up into two parts for each level of competition. First, students take an objective 100-question multiple choice test that is related to their career cluster; this accounts for one third of their competition score. The second part is a case-study role play scenario that takes place between a student and a volunteer judge who scores them based on a rubric with key performance indicators. Student scores are then ranked where the top students are able to move on to the next round of competition.

To make sure that students are prepared for competition, Club Officers host in-person and virtual practice sessions where students can get a real feel for competition day with students who have had competitive success act as judges. Students are also given online resources such as sample past role-play scenarios and Youtube videos to review before competition.

Then come the actual big days. The competitive year starts off in January with the Northwest District Competition, taking place at the Hilton Meadowlands in Secaucus. This year, DBP DECA brought over 90 student competitors to compete across over 25 different events. 32 Students were able to qualify for the District Competition in Atlantic City, with 10 students who had podium-place finished, as well as 24 students who achieved mini-awards for their individual performances on either tests or role-plays.

After a few more weeks of preparation and review, the State Conference was held at Harrah’s Hotel in Atlantic City. Students embarked on an overnight trip for three days of networking, development and competition. This year, DBP brought 40 students to the State competition. Five students were able to perform their way into top-seven place finishes: Nicholas Imbasciani in the Human Resources Event, Cameron Ward in the Financial Consulting Event, Marc Gargas in Marketing Communications, Thomas Petrie in Restaurant Food Service and Management, and Alex Agabap in the Financial Consulting event. These students qualified to attend the International Competition hosted in Orlando Florida. In addition, three students – Joshua Cuman, Thomas Harle, and Charles DellaVolpe – were selected to attend the Thrive Leadership Conference at ICDC due to their performance in the community service chapter campaign at the State competition.

The end of April finally rolled around for the event we’ve all been waiting for – ICDC. Everything we have been working towards all year culminates in this trip, a chance at international recognition. In addition to the competition, DBP DECA visited Universal Studios for some fun time in the parks. They also embraced the local cultures by trying the Michelin-recommended cuisine at Vietnamese, Italian, and Korean restaurants.

The achievement award ceremony proved a rewarding experience, as for the second year in a row Senior Alex Agabap was named an International Finalist in the Financial Consulting Event. After the ceremony, he went off to compete in the final round where he had some unfinished business to take care of due to not placing last year.

That night, Alex was finally able to earn that elusive top-10 medal, placing 7th in the world in the Financial Consulting Event, making him the third DBP DECA student to place top-10 internationally.

The journey as a competitive DBP DECA student is a lot of work, but in the end the hardest working students feel the most rewarded. If any students are looking to be challenged within their business education, or if they are just looking to improve their problem solving and interpersonal skills, they should definitely consider joining.