Sophomore Carolyn Rake helps a customer check out in the Carmel Café during SRT. She said, “I love working in the Carmel Café because you get to interact with a lot of people and meet them as well.”

DECA will host its annual Leadership Experience and Development (LEAD) conference on Sept. 29 from 9 a.m to noon in the auditorium.

“We’ve got speakers from around the community, experts in their fields, who are going to be coming in and talking about things like branding and marketing strategies, hospitality, tourism and professional selling,” Chard Reid, DECA advisor and business teacher, said. “We are expecting about 400 DECA members to attend but I encourage anyone who is interested in business to come.”

Reagan Markland, DECA executive vice president and senior, said she encourages all DECA members to come to the LEAD conference to see business-related topics come to life outside of the classroom.

“It’s really important for DECA students to attend this event because it is honestly the best way to see how these business topics we learn about are applied to the real world,” Markland said. “For example, you can read all about what cause-marketing is online or in a textbook, but there is nothing that is going to be more beneficial then coming in and hearing a business owner who is living it out every day.” By Natalie Khamis