By Ayush Kothari | May 16, 2024
As April, 2024 came to a close, 30 Woodlands students boarded a flight for Anaheim, California, to compete in the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC). DECA is a high-school business competition in which students compete in role-plays, multiple-choice exams, online simulations, and written projects in various business categories including business management, entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality, marketing, and personal financial literacy. ICDC is the culmination of the DECA year, where the best competitors from across the world assemble for an international competition, which took place from April 27th to 30th this year. DECA Woodlands members qualified for ICDC either through oral events at Provincials or by ranking as one of the top two teams in either round of DECA’s Virtual Business Challenge (VBC).
Our school’s performance at ICDC was spectacular, with students bringing home 22 Top 10 awards, a Third Place award in VBC Sports, a Second Place award in Principles of Finance (PFN), and a First Place award in VBC Fashion! Congratulations to DECA Woodlands’ ICDC competitors for a very successful performance!
The Woodstock interviewed Mikaeel Mahmood, a Grade Nine student who placed 2nd in PFN at ICDC, about his experience:
The Woodstock (W): What preparation and work did it take to get from DECA Provincials to ICDC?
Mikaeel (M): Provincials was hard, especially because of the short turnaround from Semester One exams to competition. For that reason, I had extraordinarily little preparation in exams and roleplay, and most of my preparation was done inside of my hotel room the night before my call time. It all worked out and I did well enough on my two roleplays to qualify. Unfortunately, I did not place for my exam, which can be attributed to my lack of preparation and the fact that I am just not exceptionally good at them.
W: How did you prepare for ICDC?
M: I took my preparation for ICDC very seriously because I thought I had a chance at the top 10 in my category. I did countless roleplays with Jiya Goel and Jayden Li, who both helped me by giving tremendous feedback before the competition. Jiya finished 4th in the Principles of Marketing event last year, so her experience and expertise were invaluable when preparing. I did lots of practice exams as well, knowing that I did not place for my exam at Provincials.
W: What event did you compete in and how did the competition go?
M: I competed in Principles of Finance, a category only open to people in their first year of DECA. It is especially common amongst 9th graders, but most people I met in Anaheim were older. All Principles events take the same exam, but our roleplays are different. My preliminary roleplay had to do with ethics surrounding billing hours at a law firm, and I did not think I did well on it. My judge did not seem to acknowledge much of what I was saying. It all worked out though, as my final roleplay was about economics, and my judge engaged well with the things that I was saying.
W: What was/were your favorite part(s) about the conference?
M: My favorite part about the conference was being in Southern California. It is an incredibly beautiful place, and it was hard to come back to Canada after experiencing 25° weather and palm trees in April. The food was great, and I enjoyed meeting people from other places in the U.S. I came across people from Oregon, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and New York. I even met a high schooler from the Dominican Republic, who was in my category and sat next to me before our exam.
W: What was the most memorable part of the trip, apart from the competition?
M: The most memorable part of the trip for me was visiting Disneyland. It was the day after the final awards, so I could enjoy it without any stress or worry about competition. We arrived early in the morning at 8:30am and stayed until the light show at 10:00pm. Seth Goyal played a tremendous part in making that day enjoyable, as he helped coordinate all our activities for the day. We went on plenty of rides, all of which I enjoyed.
W: What are the most valuable lessons you learned from competing in DECA?
M: Despite not winning an award for my exam at Provincials or ICDC, I learned valuable lessons about how to study and prepare for exams. I used many strategies when taking my exam at ICDC that I feel can easily carry over into the exams that I do for school. Strategies like marking answers I was not sure about, trusting my initial guess, and using process by elimination are all things that I was not aware of before studying for exams in DECA.
W: Were there any workshops or exhibits at the conference that stood out to you? If so, why?
M: During the competition days at the convention center, there was a massive hall reserved just for booths and popup stands. Most stands were for business and finance programs at different American universities, but there were also stands for fast food chains like Raising Cane’s, and even the U.S. Air Force. They had a flight simulator in there that was fun to ride in. For two days before the competition, Ontario DECA hosted training and workshops inside the hotel that aimed to help students prepare and train. I learned a lot of valuable things about performing my roleplay and taking the exam in those workshops.
ICDC 2025 will take place in Orlando, Florida. To join DECA and make your case to attend ICDC 2025, look out for announcements at the end of this school year and the beginning of the next school year. You can stay updated by following @deca.woodlands on Instagram.
Mikaeel Mahmood with his 2nd place award!
(From left to right) Jiya Goel, Emma Li, and Kyxin Jiang with their 1st place award in VBC Fashion!
DECA Woodlands at Disneyland California!
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