Thousands of high school students across Ontario travel to Toronto to compete in the annual Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) Provincials, a business case study competition that takes place over three days. This year, 5729 student competitors from 230 club chapters registered for the competition, which was held from 12 February to 14 February at the Toronto Sheraton Centre. The top competitors qualified for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC), which will take place from 20 April to 26 April in Orlando, Florida.
Competitive events are categorised into the broad clusters of business management and administration, entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality and management, marketing, and personal financial literacy. Events consist of doing role-plays and case studies, prepared events, or online simulations. Role-play and case study events involve two portions: a multiple choice test and an oral event. This year, with the exception of events in the marketing cluster, all multiple choice tests were written online on 7 February and 8 February. Marketing-related tests were conducted on-site on 14 February. The oral events were done either individually or in pairs with a judge on 13 February. Prepared events require competitors to create a written project and a presentation, with some events also requiring a career cluster exam. Finally, online events involve using business simulations such as the Stock Market Game and the Virtual Business Challenge. The awards ceremony was held on 14 February once all events were completed.
Alexander Zhang, a grade nine student who competed in the Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making event, said, “It was super fun. Kind of nerve racking but because me and my partner had prepared quite a bit, I was also excited to see what I could do. Competing in-person was definitely an experience, especially in the Sheraton hotel. Getting to stroll around downtown was a huge plus!”
Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute’s DECA Chapter has consistently performed exceptionally well at the Provincial competition in the past, and this year was no exception. Fifty members participated in the competition and won a total of 52 medals (41 medals accounting for team events), with 5 students qualifying for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC).
When reflecting on MGCI’s achievements at the DECA Ontario Provincials, the president of MGCI’s DECA Chapter, Anushka Tripathi, said, “I’m really proud of all MGCI DECA’s accomplished this year. It was so exciting seeing so many MGCI DECA members walking across the provincial stage last Tuesday, but more than the laurels themselves, I think I’m most proud of all the hard work, perseverance, and dedication that the chapter members demonstrated in their preparation for this DECA season. I have seen immense growth in every single person and it has been an honour to be a part of each of their DECA journeys.”
The Reckoner would like to recognize the following students on their achievement at the Ontario DECA Provincial competition.
- Jerry Chen (PMK) – Top 15 Exam
- Veronica Davey-Young (ENT) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 15 Exam
- Victor Jiang (PBM) – Top 20 Role-Play
- Swapnil Kabir, Alexander Zhang (ETDM) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 15 Exam, Top 3 Overall
- Eric Ma (PFN) – Top 20 Role-Play
- Maxim Mohareb (PMK) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 10 Overall
- Luck Xing (ETDM) – Top 15 Exam
- Eddie Chen (ASM) – Top 15 Exam
- Sirui Hang, Wenzhao Pan (BTDM) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 15 Exam, Top 10 Overall
- Allyson Wu (BSM) – Top 3 Overall
- Lisa Zhang (BSM) – Top 20 Role-Play
- Amy Jia, Emma Liu (STDM) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 15 Exam (Amy Jia), Top 10 Overall
- Allan Li (TTDM) – Top 15 Exam
- Laura Gao, Vicky Wen (TTDM) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 10 Overall
- Anushka Tripathi (BFS) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 15 Exam, Top 10 Overall
- Eileen Kuang, Chang Chang Li (BLTDM) – Top 20 Role-Play, Top 15 Exam (Chang Chang Li), Top 10 Overall
- Angela Xu (HLM) – Top 20 Role-Play
- Joy Zhou (PFL) – Top 20 Role-Play
