22 DECA students and sports marketing teacher Cassandra Cason-Copeland spent a weekend in Virginia Beach to attend the annual DECA states competition. The following club focuses on business or any other type of entrepreneurship, involving students to take those skills and knowledge and put them into a project or assignment to compete. Marketing, hospitality, lodging and managing are other examples of what students build work on and then take to competitions. Cason-Copeland has been leading the school’s DECA for two years now, helping club members prepare and improve their event planning before heading to states.

For Cason-Copeland, having one of her students attend the DECA national competition is something she’s familiar with. Last year, class of 2017 Duncan Rutherford qualified for nationals in Anaheim, California. This year, six of her students will be attending nationals. Juniors Jenny Nutter and Mikaela O’Fallon won in their category of a startup business plan, and junior Audrey Knupp along with senior Lucie Rutherford won in team decision making. While four of the six will be competing in nationals, freshman Jennifer Carcamo-Bonilla and senior Ayianna Jackson are the two that will be attending nationals for leadership related workshops.

“All the girls that went to states [were] able to go up on that stage a represent Harrisonburg High school, so I think that shows a true testament to our true girl power,” Cason-Copeland said.

But before arriving to the states competition, students were in charge of their own preparation and project planning for when it came down to standing in front of judges. Competitors were allowed only fifteen minutes to present, all having the goal of hitting the right points on the rubric sheet such as including a problem, revenue stream and a solution.

When it came down to working with an event that he is fairly interested in, junior Nick Gladd attended the state competition with a topic he was familiar with.

“I [did] hotel and lodging management series. It has to do with marketing for hotels, lodging and tourism… Last year I did principles of hospitality and tourism, which has to do with these events, and I just find the whole lodging and tourism industry really cool,” Gladd said.

For O’Fallon, one of the main things she believes should be focused on while presenting to the judges is speech.

“It’s difficult if you’re not good with the social aspect, then you get really nervous going up to the judge. How you present to the judge is the main thing. If you mess up, points are deducted,” O’Fallon said.

Cason-Copeland plans on attending the DECA national competition this year held in Atlanta, Georgia during mid April with her qualified students. While only six HHS DECA members will be attending, Cason-Copeland believes that the overall work ethic all 22 of the members that attended states with her ended the weekend strong.

“I think they worked extremely hard, especially the girls. They started off slow, but they really built on the skills they already had, and I think everything that they learned from the workshop and the information that was shared from previous winners [was important],” Cason-Copeland said. “All of that came in handy, and they really used that to [the] best of their ability, which was beneficial to them in the long run.”