Students that qualified for the state-level competition attend a mandatory informational meeting on Feb. 11. Over 300 students qualified for the competition that will take place from March 3 to 5.

DECA members who qualified for the state-level competition will compete March 3 to 5 at the JW Marriott.

According to Laura Cardamon, DECA co-sponsor and business teacher, students will compete in their assigned clusters all day while preparing for their events is designated rooms.

“We don’t get hotel rooms at the Marriott so we are encouraging the students to use the study rooms to prepare,” Cardamon said. “I’m asking students to still study and go over vocab so that they stay competitive.”

Junior Nanditha Kolur said she is excited to compete at the state-level competition. For the past three years, Kolur said she has taken practice role plays and studied vocabulary terms for her cluster in order to prepare for the competition.

“For any DECA competition, the best way to prepare is to practice and feel comfortable with the format of the roleplay or presentation,” Kolur said. “Being prepared equates to better results, which is what gets you to the international competition.” By Natalie Khamis