DECA students are off campus Tuesday for the district meet at the Irving Convention Center competing against schools from across north Texas. 

“[The other teams] do make the competition harder,” Senior Sonika Rao said. “But they help you find out what you need to work on the most.”

Students compete in different events, with each one presenting unique challenges to participants. For Rao, that’s the Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making event.

“We have to analyze an ethical problem with a company given to us in a role play and then plan out what to say and then we go present to the judge, who’s usually the president of the company,” Rao said. “We analyze their problem and how to fix it, and then they ask some questions [about the solution].”

The events present scenarios that students may not learn about in a business class, and Rao says that she has benefitted from the events she has competed in.

“It helps because my event is business law and I want to go into corporate law in the future,” Rao said. “Dealing with the ethical situations is going to help me in the future.”