When students take the exam to be... leaders

An activity of the DECA 2025 competition in Texas, USA - Photo: PQVINH

When I heard that my eldest daughter, who is studying at Westlake Academy, and her group of friends would participate in the DECA competition of Region 12 with more than 20,000 students from major cities in the Arlington - Fort Worth - Irving cluster (Texas state), I was curious and learned about this interesting competition.

And also to accompany my child, I decided to register to be a judge of this competition.

When the official invitation was sent via email after being approved, I realized that I would be judging the students' exams in the role-play, a competition in which candidates had to come up with a business solution in a short time based on a real-life situation given by the organizers. At the same time, it was also the beginning of my journey to learn about DECA.

"Headhunting" early, from afar

DECA is an international non-profit educational organization designed for high school students, college students and young professionals to develop leadership, business and management skills in areas such as marketing, finance, administration, hospitality and entrepreneurship.

DECA’s goal is to prepare young students to become successful leaders and entrepreneurs in these industries. Through preparation for the competition, young people will be trained to develop skills such as: critical thinking, communication skills, creative problem solving, and professional work ethic.

DECA’s original full name was Distributive Education Clubs of America. But the organization now uses the name DECA to reflect its broader scope of service areas. DECA operates in more than 3,200 schools in all 50 states and countries such as Canada, China, Germany, Poland, Guam, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Spain.

The competition also offers scholarships from major partners such as Marriott, AT&T and many other businesses, and this will also be an opportunity for businesses to "headhunt" young business leaders from high school.

DECA is also divided into different levels: "High School Division" for high school students (grades 9-12), "Collegiate Division" for college and university students, "Professional Division" for former members or those interested in supporting DECA, and "Alumni Division" connecting members who have participated in DECA.

DECA Competition as Academic Marketplace

Arriving very early to get used to the professional exam atmosphere with hundreds of students wearing neat suits, confident and full of energy, I also felt like I was returning to the time when I took the university entrance exam before.

The girl and her DECA club team will compete against about 20,000 contestants from across the state in hopes of advancing to the state round and then the finals in Orlando, Florida later this April.

The exam time began and the groups of candidates confidently walked to their exam tables one by one. The most exciting thing was when the dead silence of the entire auditorium was broken by the sound of the bell marking the start of the exam.

Everything became a real academic market when all the candidates started to show themselves, and the judges looked at each other and laughed with delight at the quick change in atmosphere.

For the individual test, each candidate's mark was clearly shown. DECA facilitated the candidates by giving them situations that are often related to the business fields that the candidates have experienced or are currently maintaining business activities.

What the examiner is testing the candidates' ability in this section is their thorough understanding of their business decisions.

The group portion is more team-oriented and much more challenging. Each team will need two people and each person will be asked to take a 100-question multiple-choice test just like the individual portion.

The teams will then also receive a business case related to the field they have registered for, from which they will make their own business strategy decisions. This is the most important difference between the individual and group competitions.

When each team started their presentation, I was amazed at how well prepared they were. Although they only had 10 minutes to think and plan a marketing campaign for the topic that the organizers had just given, each group of contestants showed confidence and quick thinking.

Some teams impressed with their creative approach, while others showed practical thinking and effective problem solving. However, there were also a few teams that were trying it out for the first time, so their preparation was still superficial and their answers were not focused on solving the problem, but they were in the minority.

Talking to me about the benefits of the DECA competition, Mr. Robin - a member of the organizing committee - said: "DECA is a competition to develop practical skills, helping students apply theory to practice through exercises. In addition, it will help students connect with experts and businesses, improving their competitiveness in learning and the labor market".

DECA is not only a competition but also a practical training environment that helps students practice important skills for the future, especially confidence, critical thinking ability and how to handle real-life situations.

In 2017, "child prodigy" Do Nhat Nam won the 3rd prize in the DECA individual competition at the Pennsylvania state level in the "Principles of Business Administration" category. This competition had 4,500 participants.

DECA is starting to take off in Vietnam

In Vietnam, currently, a number of high schools in big cities have established DECA clubs such as Hanoi Amsterdam DECA (Hanoi), PTNK DECA (Gifted High School - Ho Chi Minh City National University) and have achieved certain successes. Especially in the "Vietnam DECA 2024 Saigon Fall competition", PTNK DECA exploded with an impressive performance, surpassing nearly 140 contestants to win the championship among 9 participating schools.

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PHAN QUOC VINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khi-hoc-sinh-thi-lam-lanh-dao-20250413223319493.htm