‘It wouldn’t be me. My roleplay wasn’t good enough to make it to ICDC.’

CHS9 student Satviki Buchipudi had accepted her fate. She had already been one of 42 students to qualify for DECA state and although her hard work had paid off, she still believed she wouldn’t make it to the DECA International Career Development Conference. 

When she saw her name on the screen and got called up onto the stage, she was shaking in shock. She was the only CHS9 student to make it internationally in DECA. 

“Even though she made it to ICDC and we didn’t, she wasn’t bragging about it,” freshman Rithanya Selvakumar said. “Even people who went to state with us were saying how she was really humble.”

To Buchipudi and to her mother, Divya Dornadula, her DECA success is foundationally grown through her youth. 

“Satviki was always a people person,” Dornadula said. “Whether it’s a child, older person or a person of her age, she would always mingle with them. Even with a 5-year-old, she would be very comfortable to sit with them, play with them and get down to their level.”

DECA involves engaging with the judges and presenting a solution to a given business problem smoothly and effectively. 

Buchipudi tried many different things growing up from gymnastics to debate. Some stuck, continuing with her on her journey through business, including classical dance and debate. However most still made an impact on her skills as a DECA competitor. 

Practice makes perfect

Buchipudi discontinued gymnastics due to COVID-19, preferring to grow in debate at the Coppell Debate Academy. Ice skating remained for a short period of time and was dropped for mostly the same reasons.

“Ice skating and gymnastics were really hard starting off, but I feel like as time goes on and the more you practice, it kind of gets better,” Buchipudi said. “I did not do very well on the first DECA test, but just knowing that ‘if you do it more you improve’ is a mindset I took from those sports.”

Thinking outside the box

Throughout her time at Coppell Middle School East, Buchipudi took art classes and entered art competitions, a hobby she’s put aside at school but keeps on doing when she has the time.

“Satviki is a perfectionist, which I could see in her art classes as she used to sit for hours, until her art matched what’s in her mind,” Dornadula said. “She always goes out of the box to make it perfect or add an extra thing to her art project and I think she wanted to incorporate that in DECA.”

Buchipudi attributes a lot of her success in DECA due to her creativity in her entrepreneurial roleplay, which is one of the core parts of DECA competitions. She prioritized making props, social media posts and more in order to appear more interesting to judges who hear the same buzz words in every speech.

Butterflies in your stomach:

“Since she was 5 or 6 years old, Satviki has been in classical dance,” Dornadula said. “I think that’s where I can attribute her lack of stage fright.”

Buchipudi’s dancing has shown her how to practice and preserve in DECA and go in front of judges as a confident member representing the CHS9 chapter.

“She’s a totally different person on stage versus off stage when it comes to dance,” Dornadula said.

These creative outlets have shown Buchipudi different ways to excel in DECA, something she found out about as a sixth grader.

“My first debate instructor when I was in CDA was talking to us about how she went to DECA, ICDC and Disneyland,” Buchipudi said. “I thought that was so cool.”

Buchipudi went to ICDC from April 25-28 in Atlanta. The only ninth grader from Coppell, she traveled with New Tech High @ Coppell students, spending her time studying for the written test and practicing for the roleplay. She ultimately scored high in both the test and the roleplay but, due to the high competition, wasn’t part of the top ten who got formal recognition. 

She’s excited to go into upcoming years in DECA and plans to give it her all just as she did for her first year. 

“I feel like I’ve never really been as passionate towards anything as much this year,” Buchipudi said. “I really cared about it because it’s something I really wanted to achieve.”

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