The hallowed history of Scituate DECA goes back decades — the program has seen countless students receive awards at the district competition and dozens of students have been sent to the state competition. This year is different: Scituate boasts 19 members headed to the state competition, which will be held this week.

DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America. After four years of being in and around the program, this young reporter still can’t make the connection between the name and what it’s actually about. DECA, as we know it, is all about business. Anyone who has taken a class with Mr. Maki has heard of it. Students compete in a category either as an individual or as part of a duo and perform a mock presentation about their area of competition. They are graded in their presentation performance as well as their score on a 100 question multiple choice test. These two assessments combine to create an overall score; this year, Scituate students performed very well with 23 placing in the top 10 in their respective categories.

This type of success breeds all sorts of interest from prospective members in the coming school year. Those of you who are considering joining may be asking yourself what the DECA experience is like. Well, apart from the two days off of school and a night in a hotel with over 1,000 of your closest friends, the evening festivities include a dance, karaoke (which SHS always runs), as well as a game room and trivia competitions. Four-year veteran and senior Will McCarry describes the evening as “a blast.” When I asked senior Matt Loud to describe his experience with DECA in two words he replied with “fun education.” It’s true — the competition is a great time and it is also beneficial to your education and resume. Senior Conor O’Malley said, “I first joined DECA because it was a good boost to my resume, but I realized it was more than that.”

With 19 students headed to states, Scituate’s DECA program shows no signs of slowing down. We hope they can build on their previous success and keep up their winning ways as they get deeper into the competition.