The Cherry Hill Crowne Plaza was full on January 8, and countless meetings took place in the convention center. No, this was not a corporate seminar or even a trade show. The sea of black and blue business suits that assembled at the Crowne Plaza was due to the DECA regional conference.

  Eastern’s DECA chapter makes up one of the most populous activities at the school with over two-hundred members. On the morning of January 8, every single student was crammed into an array of bright yellow school busses destined for the NJ DECA Southern Region Gold regional conference.

  Eastern business teacher, Mrs. Lowery, was one of the key people in charge of the event. The conference hosts schools from around the South Jersey areas, from Cherry Hill to Ocean City.

  DECA, which stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America, is a marketing business competition between individual students and schools. Student’s first have to complete a multiple choice exam in a category related to business. Then, students must participate in a role play at the conference in Cherry Hill.

  For most role plays, participants are given a scenario in which ten minutes are allotted for individual events and a half hour with a partner to present some sort of business proposal. “Basically, you are solving a problem and presenting it to a judge and he scores you,” said Mrs. Lowery, the Eastern DECA advisor.

  “Eastern was very successful,” Mrs. Lowery said, regarding both role plays and test scores. “Of the [220 Eastern] students… there are 86 who made it to the next level of states”.

  The New Jersey State Conference is not particularly different from Regionals, with the general format being similar. “[Students] are dealing with the best of the best,” said Lowery. All of the DECA students from around New Jersey who advanced from any of the six regional conferences compete at the state level.

  The State Conference is being held at Harrah’s Casino in Atlantic City for the second year in a row, and this event hosts thousands of high-level DECA competitors from every corner of the state.

  Although the competition went fairly smooth, there were some issues. January 8 was the first day back in school for Eastern after experiencing two snow days, and there were seperate weather issues on that day. Namely, poor road conditions.

  Some schools, such as ones down the shore, had delayed openings or snow days themselves, causing logistical issues for the event, the greatest one being lack of judges for role plays, as many had difficulties getting into Cherry Hill. This, paired with a new system of keeping scores on tablet computers, generally slowed things down.

  Due to a lack of personnel, Rachel Lynch, an Eastern senior and DECA chapter president, ended up assisting with a hospitality team event, in addition to competing in her own category.

  “It was interesting to see things from the other side,” Lynch said. The primary reason she was granted this opportunity was because of her position as the New Jersey State Vice President of the Southern Region. Lynch, who is Eastern’s first ever DECA state officer, was elected at the New Jersey State Conference in 2017.

  “This has been a great experience,” said Lynch, who has become instrumental in planning the DECA state agenda for the 2017-2018 year. Before her election, she was subject to a rigorous screening process, all before she was even elected.

  Upon taking office, Rachel travels to Kean University for monthly meetings with state DECA staff, and she is also granted a number of unique DECA-related opportunities. One of of her favorite opportunities was interviewing Joseph Abboud, the Chief Creative Director at Men’s Warehouse.

  As a state officer, Rachel was also instrumental in the Crowne Plaza’s award ceremony. Although the ceremony was canceled due to inclement weather, Lynch was still able to be involved at the ceremony being held on January 9 for the South Jersey Blue Conference, which was also held at the Crowne Plaza hotel.

  Despite the shortened conference, Eastern still found itself having great success, with countless students placing amongst the top tier of competitors. “We were really prioritizing our performance this year at Regionals,” said senior Bhavin Doshi, Eatern’s DECA Vice President. “We had a new test preparation program… as well as many workshops.

  “Working with students and actually getting them to practice is a key to success in this form of competition. We wanted to make sure that everything at Regionals ran smoothly,” Doshi said.