From district to state and now International Career Development Conferences, Coppell’s DECA  continues to excel at every stage. On March 9-11, the DECA chapter traveled to its annual State Career Development Conference at Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas. Competitors participated in a variety of business events, ranging from live roleplays to rehearsed sales presentations to essays.

DECA completed SCDC with 25 ICDC qualifiers and a school record of 25 state finalists.

“The 25 who qualified to ICDC have the best chance to place at ICDC than CHS DECA has ever had,” Coppell High School DECA adviser Richard Chamberlain said. 

ICDC qualifiers will attend the competition from April 22-25 in Orlando, Fla.

According to Chamberlain, this year, more than 5,200 students from 222 schools in Texas competed at SCDC, with Coppell bringing a record 177 of its 250 members, one of the largest programs in the North Texas Region. 

To qualify for SCDC, competitors had to place in the top six at their event in the District Career Development Conference, which was held Jan. 25 at the Irving Convention Center. Advancing from SCDC to ICDC is more challenging. Not only is the competition tougher with other district winners, but advancing requires being the top competitor in each section of an event.

Spearheading Coppell’s record-breaking numbers is a 19-member strong leadership team, a drastic change from last year.

“We expanded our leadership team within DECA from five to 19 since last year, giving more people the ability to step up to make sure that work was done equally as well as efficiently,” CHS senior DECA CEO Dilan Patel said. “People were not afraid to get out of their comfort zone, to do more work than they had to and contribute the time and effort into making our chapter great.”

Patel has been involved in “the deck”  since his freshman year, and has built leadership skills and soft skills. Patel qualified for ICDC in Financial Accounting, an event consisting of a financial exam and a role play where students are given a case study and tasked with analyzing it using financial accounting concepts in front of a judge during a 15-minute presentation. Patel also was awarded the Anderson Business Advisors Scholarship, given to students who display an exceptional aptitude for business, earning $5,000. 

This year was the biggest state competition since COVID-19. After a year of virtual. Having one shot at SCDC for a trip to Orlando, Fla. can put an enormous amount of pressure on the students, specifically the seniors.

“As our chapter has grown, our leadership team has delegated items, problem-solved and worked as a team to accomplish chapter goals,” Chamberlain said. “ There is no way we could succeed at any level without their dedication.”

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