Walnut Grove’s DECA Achieves High Rankings at the Atlanta State Competition

On January 31st, the Walnut Grove (WG) DECA organization traveled to the Atlanta Hyatt Regency to compete in competitions. Freshman Chase Lofton and the entire WG DECA group were highly ranked at these events. 
by Ansleigh Hester

Chase Lofton’s “Thematic” Theme Speech
Freshman Chase Lofton gave a fantastic presentation on how to be “the one” in DECA. It was a particularly challenging and vague theme prompt. He finished eighth overall in the competition. “[The theme prompt] was complicated. It was about being the one in DECA, and it was hard to describe. It's hard to explain, but it was how to step up, stand out and be the one [in DECA],” Lofton explains. 

He was given this theme speech prompt months before the Atlanta state-wide competition. Having the prompt for a significant time before the competition, gave him a head start in preparing for the theme speech competition. “They give you a prompt [before the competition], this was like months and months ago, and make a speech about it. Then you just present it to them for like three minutes,” Lofton shares. 

He qualified for the international competition in Orlando, Florida, but he will be unable to go. Lofton feels a sense of accomplishment for his theme speech competition, but he also feels proud of the WG DECA communities’ third ranking in the Atlanta events. He states, “I think it's nice because over these next few years we can get more and more people in DECA.”

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Ms. Krista Milligan’s Pride in DECA’s Ranking 
While the group was in Atlanta, they competed in Team Decision Making competitions while Lofton presented his theme speech. 
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Ms. Milligan’s favorite highlight of the state-wide competition was the ranking of the group overall. “Our chapter won 3rd in the state for Chapter Membership Increase and our students gained more business knowledge as well as DECA knowledge,” Ms. Milligan, the sponsor of DECA, says. 

Ms. Milligan was also excited because Lofton’s theme speech ranked high in the Atlanta state competition which was the first for the WG DECA organization. 

“We are so proud of Chase [Lofton] and all of our competitors who have worked so hard to get here. The growth in our chapter has been absolutely amazing and these kids are developing a passion for DECA,” she states. 

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Dillon Newton’s Insight on the Competitions
Junior Dillion Newton was so excited to hear that the WG DECA chapter placed third overall in the state competition. 

Newton explains, “We had the third largest chapter growth in the state this school year. We had an over 250% membership increase. I am so happy to see our chapter grow and getting that recognition at state was so awesome. Getting that news on Thursday night was such an amazing start to our weekend.” 

Newton competed in the Team Decision Making competitions with the rest of the DECA group. “We had teams of two competing in Buying and Merchandising, Hospitality Services, and Marketing Management. Those are all team decision making events where you go in with a partner and read a scenario and create some sort of plan for the business to use,” she says. 

Once they finished reading the scenario and planning out the business plan, they were required to present their idea to the judge. 

Newton shares, “There's a variety of different things they can ask for like planning a promotional event, creating social media posts, and ways to sell more products. You then present your ideas to one judge and it flows like any other interview.”

Some of the WG DECA members decided to compete in other individual marketing competitions. 

“The individual events we had competitors in were the Theme Speech and Principles of Marketing, the latter of which is essentially the same as the team events just with one person,” she says. 

Newton competed in a Marketing Management competition with another Junior, Emori Maolud-Lewis. 
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Newton states, “We had to come up with a marketing plan to sell a new edition of the company’s cookbook after bad sales on the last edition. We came up with a promotional book signing and recipe tasting, social media posts, and giveaways in order to help this fictional company sell the cookbook.” 

Newton has spent many semesters in DECA, but she is continuing to learn more about marketing techniques within DECA. 

Activities Outside of the Competitions 
The hotel that the DECA chapter stayed in had a food court connected to it. DECA members enjoyed food from the food court. 

“...we networked with people from other chapters, had fun at a silent disco with all of Georgia DECA, and made so many memories just getting to know each other better,” Newton concludes.