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2024 DECA Recap
With the conclusion of the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) DECA season has come to a close for our beloved Cavaliers! But, what a year to be a Cavalier in Blanchet DECA!
We opened the year with our DECA Orientation Day in late October and to our delight, 117 of our approximately 230 high school students signed up for DECA! Over the next three months, we trained every Wednesday on our WeDECAdays, rehearsing role plays, practicing exams and preparing projects and presentations as we focused on the state championships held in Mid-February.
In early December, our DECA members had the unique opportunity to attend the inaugural DECA Champ Camp held at the University of Oregon. With six Cavaliers in attendance, and nationally acclaimed business teachers and DECA trainers leading the sessions, we grew even more excited about the season lying ahead as our Cavaliers quickly jumped to the head of the pack in preparing a presentation, delivering a role play, and finding tips and tricks for taking exams! Claire Raffensperger, Ben Alley, Ben Eugenio, Tyler Millican, Carter Mucken, Katrina Lourenco, Nhi Huynh and Tanveer Singh led the CAVS contingents showing off some serious DECA prowess to other statewide DECA members and our national trainers!
We resumed our WeDECAdays coming off the holiday break, and then we were honored to help the East Salem Rotary with their annual fundraising gala. Such a spectacle to see many of Salem's finest leaders in attendance, as our Cavaliers helped set up, serve, and clear tables while rubbing elbows with many of Salem and Oregon's most influential leaders!
As we rolled into February, we held our annual District Competition in which 70 of our Cavaliers competed! With a huge shout-out “thank you” to our fifteen parents and staff volunteers for making DECA Districts such a huge success, to the kids being dressed to impress, testing, and taking their dress rehearsal in presenting role plays, our district competition was yet another hallmark moment of our year! Congratulations to our testing champions; Kyla Deglow, Emily Barnett, Ben Eugenio, Mitchell Wort, Koren Ickes-Amend and Holden Prine on showcasing how well they know marketing, business, finance, hospitality and entrepreneurship! Joining them on the podium were our all-star role-play competitors including; Holden Prine, Griffen Mucken, Riley Pratt, Jacob Fromwiller, Josh Grossman, Scarlett Prine and Eilee Mucken.
Our State Career Development Conference (SCDC), or the DECA state championships, followed on Feb. 12, and as has become the norm, nearly 80 Cavaliers attended! With so many Cavs competing against an enlarged field of other Oregon students (400 more than last year), the competition was grueling! But, our Cavaliers hung strong with nearly 40 students finishing in the Top 20 statewide, and Claire Raffensperger, Hap Freres, Max Quintero, Holden Prine, Tyler Millican, Tanveer Singh, Ben Alley and Scarlett Prine earning automatic bids to ICDC by finishing in the Top 3 in the State of Oregon in their respective competitions! Additional ICDC Cavalier qualifiers included Ava Johnson, Rafael Rodriguez, Carter Mucken, Katrina Lourenco, Nhi Huynh, Josh Mosar, Sam Mosar, Carolina Lim, Noah Carpenter, Kyla Deglow, Mitchell Wort, Koren Ickes-Amend, Max Weber, Grace Weber, Brooklyn Ries, Bill Riecke, Joe Beyer, Emily Barnett, Camryn Carney, Rieve Randall, Raquelle Hendrix, Franchesca Ruiz-Romero, Eilee Mucken, Asher Freres and Patrick Walsh initially qualifying for ICDC with at large bids. Uniquely, Scarlett Prine was awarded a spot in DECA ICDC leadership academy, an award only granted to eight applicants! To say that Scarlett learned a lot from that experience would be a grand understatement and we are excited to see her bring those lessons back to BCS and make Cavalier Nation even stronger!
With so many Cavaliers qualifying for nationals and fourteen able to attend, the mood around getting to ICDC in Anaheim was nothing short of electric! Departing on April 26 the Cavalier contingent departed with Mr. and Mrs. Risen, Ms. Willbur, Mrs. Christina Weber, Mrs. Lena Prine, and Mrs. Trisha Freres! To say that Mrs. Prine, Weber and Freres were anything short of amazing surrogate parents on the trip would be an incredible understatement! We certainly owe them, and Ms. Willbur, the greatest of THANK YOU’S for all of their efforts in supporting and attending to our ICDC attendees! And, just when we thought we were set up for an outstanding ICDC, even more great news came as Max Quintero won the Oregon DECA Pin Design Contest! Max designed the trading pin that the entire 283 representatives from Oregon, as well as advisors and chaperons, would trade with some 25,000 attendees, each association of the 65 in attendance bringing their own pin to trade as well! Little did we know, however, that Max’s Oregon pin would be in such high demand and was loved by people from all fifty states and the fifteen nations that also sent competitors! Way to go Max!
This ICDC would turn out to be slightly bittersweet, however. As Max, and all of our BCS kids were basking in the glow of Max’s design and the demand for the Oregon pin, we were saying goodbye to Tanveer Singh who was wrapping up his second straight year as president of Oregon DECA! An amazing leader, Tanveer represented himself, his family, BCS and Oregon with the utmost integrity and ambassadorship anyone could ever ask for, and was invited on stage at the closing ceremony at ICDC to also receive a large scholarship on behalf of DECA! But, the sweetness got just a little sweeter when Hap Freres, Max Quintero and Holden Prine made the ICDC finals in their entrepreneurship event with their invention, LifeDex! To put this in perspective, there were approximately 1,000 finalists from the 65 different associations and hundreds of thousands of DECA members worldwide and there they were, our three Cavaliers standing shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world! What an accomplishment and huge congratulations to the three of them on such an amazing accomplishment!
From Disney’s California Adventure, to Huntington Beach and Knotts Berry Farm, roller coasters, 20th century movie themes and beautiful peers, let alone DECA testing, role plays and meetings, it was truly the trip of a lifetime for our Cavaliers! Bravo to our kids, endless thanks to all of our DECA parents, staff and administrators, and until next time, GO CAVS!
Blanchet DECA 2024 Exceeds Expectations
WOW! What a three-day adventure our DECA chapter had at the DECA State Championships!
We opened up the championships on Sunday by being recognized as the fastest-growing chapter in the state with more new members than anyone, as well as having an astonishing 51% of our high school student body participating in DECA! Our record-breaking attendance at SCDC was also recognized by Oregon DECA. It was very exciting to see the kid's enthusiasm and appreciation for the recognition of all of their hard work right from the get-go!
Monday meant role play events and competition time! Dressed to impress, charm and show off that Cavalier swag, our kiddos headed off to the many large ballroom venues to prep, think, strategize and then face their judges! It was fun to see them return to our CAVS Lounge and tell their stories of their experiences, the strategies they employed, which judges scared them, and which ones they felt they connected with!
After a day of tough competition, we gathered for our chapter dinner. Adorned in our DECA swag, the event took on a slightly formal tone as we enjoyed each other’s company, told more stories of the day, enjoyed a good meal, and did a few presentations, including recognizing our Super Bowl 100 Square Game winners (Max Q, Claire R, and Asher F.). We also took a moment to thank our chaperones for all they do to support our DECA chapter!
With a handful of kids recognized at Monday evening's recognition ceremony, the anticipation and excitement grew for Tuesday to be our very own Super Tuesday! And it was! With 28 kids recognized on stage Tuesday night and many automatically qualifying for the national championships (ICDC in Anaheim, CA), CAVS DECA showed up and showed out! Whether individual, team, or project-based events, hardly a moment went by without the beloved sound of “and from Blanchet Catholic….” ringing in our ears and our kids running for the stage while their classmates roared in support! But two special recognitions were particularly noteworthy.
Max Quintero won a statewide competition to design a new logo for Oregon DECA! Competing against hundreds of kids from across the state and a handful of finalists, the 1,000-plus students in attendance gave their input on all of the designs during the vendor fair at SCDC, and Max’s design was chosen as champion! His design will be used by the Oregon ICDC contingent headed to Anaheim in late April for the national championships as well as for further Oregon DECA matters going into the future! What an accomplishment!
Additionally, our very own Tanveer Singh signed off as President of Oregon DECA at the closing ceremony with an incredibly impressive speech, and his two-year tenure as Oregon DECA President is coming to a close. As usual, Tanveer handled it with his well-mannered grace and charm. We are proud of the reputation he built for himself and Blanchet Catholic along the way. He has been nothing short of an impeccable ambassador and stately representative for Oregon and BCS!
In closing, I wanted to thank all of you for supporting our student’s participation in DECA. From learning interview skills to strengthening their public speaking, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork abilities, the students take home an incredible experience and life skills that will serve them well forever.
Finally, please join me in a huge thank you to our DECA Officers team (Emily Barnett, Holden Prine, Max Quintero, Tanveer Singh, Bill Riecke, Brooklyn Ries, Grace Weber, Joe Beyer, Franchesca Ruiz Romero and Josh Mosar (along with their families) for all of the behind the scenes work they do to ensure a well organized, positive experience, for all of our students in DECA. They are nothing short of incredible!
Written by Club Advisor: Mr. Mark Risen
Blanchet DECA Excels at 2023 State Conference
Blanchet's DECA mission statement is “to give all members the ability to grow in an honest and challenging environment.” DECA is primarily a co-curricular activity where students learn to conduct marketing research projects, promotion plans, and start-up businesses, and encounter realistic workplace challenges. The experience-based activities require students to use both basic and higher academic skills such as writing, math, economics, social science, communication, presentation, research, and data analysis.
The pinnacle of Oregon DECA is the State Career Development Conference (SCDC). Nearly 1,000 students from all over Oregon attend to compete for an opportunity to advance to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). Aside from competition, this three-day conference includes many networking opportunities, leadership sessions, and a chance to create lasting friendships among chapter members.
Reaching a membership milestone this year with 72 Cavaliers in Blanchet's DECA chapter, the students underwent a season of practices and a district competition held at Blanchet to prepare them for the state competition. Blanchet then took our largest contingent ever, over 49 students, to the 3-day DECA SCDC conference in Portland. At the state championships, six of our students earned guaranteed spots at ICDC; they are Tanveer Singh, Nhi Huynh, Paola Diaz-Hermosillo, Holden Prine, Max Quintero, and Koren Ickes-Amend. Blanchet's Community Outreach Project, The Open Minded Project, led by Paola, Tanveer, and Nhi, earned a first-place spot that will take them to ICDC! Holden Prine and Max QUintero also stood atop the podium with their business development project for a total of five Cavalier state champions at this year's SCDC!
More honors were also earned as twenty Cavaliers finished in the top 10 in the state of Oregon in their respective competitions, ten Cavaliers placed 4th through 8th in their events and were honored with a medal, and thirty-eight placed in the top 25 competitors for their event(s) at SCDC! Over twenty Blanchet students placed in multiple events and eight new Cavalier DECA members placed in their principle (novice) events!
Additionally, thirteen Cavaliers qualified for nationals and will attend ICDC from April 21 to 26 in Orlando, Florida. The Cavalier contingent to Florida includes Elisabeth Fromwiller, Abby Webber, Holden Prine, Max Quintero, Claire Raffensperger, Raquelle Hendrix, Ben Alley, Nhi Huynh, Carter Mucken, Tanveer Singh, Brooklyn Ries, Grace Weber, and Koren Ickes-Amend.
We are also very proud to announce that Blanchet junior, Tanveer Singh, was re-elected as Oregon DECA"s President for 2023-2024. Oregon DECA officers are elected by their peers at SCDC and represent Oregon's membership. The State Officer team develops a program of work aligned to the strategic goals of DECA. Throughout the year, the team interacts with the membership to implement and enhance DECA programs. Congratulations to Tanveer as he represents Blanchet and the DECA community in this role!
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