![The Phoenix varsity volleyball team lines up for the national anthem. “We were more communicative [with each other] during this game, and I feel like we kept our energy up, especially after the first set,” senior Jessica Valdov said.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DSC_0202-1200x800.jpg)
![As the referee throws the ball up for the tip-off, freshman Simone Diby leaps towards the ball to get it in Phoenix possession. Diby is a new member of the Phoenix girls basketball team, and despite it being a change, she finds it enjoyable. “It’s definitely a different experience if you’ve never played on a team, [but] I think it’s still fun.”](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DSC_0057-1200x662.jpg)
Rock Ridge DECA Head Down to Virginia Beach for Yearly State Leadership Conference
Teams craft their final business ideas and show their products and ideas to other schools around Virginia. During the 3 days they were at the SLC, they did role plays, team building exercises, and competed.
Photo Courtesy of Nour Bataineh
Before they leave the convention center, the DECA team meets to form the DECA symbol in a group photo. “It was really engaging, we got to meet a lot of different people and discover new skills,” junior Varsha Korumili said.
May 25, 2023
Distributive Education Clubs of America, or DECA, is an organization that offers high school and college students opportunities in business. Contestants become entrepreneurs and get the chance to present their business idea. There are many different events to compete in including, principles of business administration, team decision-making, individual series, personal financial literacy, business operations research, project management, entrepreneurship, integrated marketing campaign, and professional selling and consulting.
There are three different rounds to qualify in, districts, states, and internationals, ICDC. Everyone qualifies for districts, but groups need to be qualified to go to states by placing in districts as a freshman. However, certain events let you qualify straight to states because extra time is needed in order to write a 10-page essay and a presentation. Teams will always have to qualify for Nationals and ICDC — the top. Each group presents their idea in a different way, some do role-play or case studies. Others have to do some type of presentation or consultation. Another aspect of the competition is Charity. Anyone is welcome to do community service and get volunteer hours.
Almost every month, Rock Ridge DECA has a meeting where the community volunteers for activities like writing letters for important causes. It’s the perfect place where leadership and organizational skills are used. Some are mandatory, while other events are more of a networking opportunity.
On Friday, March 3, 76 DECA students went to Virginia Beach to take part in the annual Virginia DECA State Leadership competition. The Grand Award Winners in 1st place were in business solutions project (Archit Jain, Dwij Kudum, and Parkirat Sandhu), buying and merchandising operations (Aria Sharma, Harshroop Singh, and Alyssa Yoon), and finance operations (Rohan Misra and Shruta Thum).
Junior Varsha Korumili:
Q: What category are you competing in?
A: I did startup business, so I had to create my group and a product that would help solve a problem.
Q: How did the Virginia Beach Conference Go?
A: It was really engaging, we got to meet a lot of new different people and discover new skills about ourselves.
Q: What product were you guys working on for your business?
A: We made drug-testing charm bracelets where if you dip the charm into a drink, it detects whether the drink has been drugged or not.
Q: What was your favorite thing about the competition?
A: I think my favorite thing was waiting to go inside the ceremony. We got to watch different people from different schools and play games with them. On our first day there, we did a bunch of team bonding activities which were really fun.
Q: What were some of the team bonding activities?
A: We had a relay race and then we had pictionary and mafia; we did a lot of different things.
Q: Did your team win?
A: We got 4th place for our event so we qualified for ICDC and 32 other people from our school qualified.
Q: What do you think is the best thing about DECA overall?
A: I think the best thing about it is if you want to major in business it helps you acquire those skills at a young age and it helps you kind of experience everything.
Sophomore Lilia Jones:
Q: What category of DECA do you guys work on in class?
A: My team was Trey Fitch and Adrian. We worked in project management business solutions so we worked with the school trying to find potential sponsorships for Rock Ridge.
Q: How did the Virginia Beach Conference go?
A: For me, personally, it was really fun. It was a really good experience but unfortunately, we didn’t make it to ICDC, which was kind of upsetting, but it was our first year so I am kind of excited.
Q: What was your favorite thing about the Virginia Beach Conference?
A: I think the people. I really liked talking and meeting new people. When I was there I think I had 2 roommates who I never even talked to or knew and now we’re close friends. It’s about leadership and friends.
Q: What do you think is the best thing about DECA overall?
A: Probably the experience because I learned new things. I wasn’t really interested in business and marketing but now that I’ve done DECA, I suddenly want to do it more and am considering to major in it for college.
Freshman Funmi Aluko:
Q: How did the Virginia Beach Conference go?
A: It was really good, I think it was a great experience as a freshman. I got to meet new people and have a trip out of school and spend time with friends. I was also competing and having fun.
Q: What was the best part of the competition?
A: Probably competing and dressing up in our suits.
Q: Did any of your teams win there?
A: Sadly no, but we did get in the top sixteen in our category while we were going against seniors and upperclassmen.
Q: What was the category you were in?
A: We did business, law, and ethics.
Q: What were you guys advertising for that?
A: For business, law, and ethics we had a prompt that was about brand inclusivity that wanted to join the program but they weren’t size inclusive and we had to figure out how we should do that.
Q: What do you think is the best thing about DECA overall?
A: I would say meeting new people 100%. There are lots of networking and leadership opportunities.
![On Nov. 22, students and staff competed against each other during the ninth annual Student vs. Staff Volleyball Game. The game ended with a 36-30 victory for the students, marking their third consecutive win and bringing the overall series to 6-3 in favor of the students.
The game was competitive, drawing significant anticipation as the teachers sought to even the score after last year’s loss. “We kind of know the strengths of people,” social sciences teacher Steven Mobley said. “There's a lot of staff emails actually going on about it, like who wants to play where and who wants to play when. So we're communicating a lot more this year than previous years.”
While members of the staff team focused on playing strategy and communicating with each other, the students walked into the game with specific goals they wanted to achieve. “I’m not violent, [but] I want to try to get Mr. Clear, and if not him, I want to get Ms. Leach,” senior Rishit Choudhari said. “I want to see Mr. Clear upset and frowning.”
The game began with the students and staff tying with a score of 10-10 in the first set. However, the students edged ahead during the second set, having a strong lead of 25-19. The final set saw both teams exchanging points in a close contest, but the students pulled away in the final minutes to secure the 36-30 win.
Senior Mihir Peta was crowned MVP for the second time, his first after the 2022 Students vs. Staff Volleyball Game for his dedication to ensuring the student team won. “I don't want to sound cocky, but it was expected, to be honest,” Peta said. “I won it sophomore year, I should have won it junior year, but I couldn't play. So I came back for redemption senior year.”
✏️ and 📷 by Ananya Karthik, Sophie King, and Shivu Sathe](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)