The first Saturday of spring break was anything but normal for the 20 DECA students that advanced to state. Rather than spending the day in a big venue for the state award ceremony, it was a virtual watch party.

“Usually we take tests online at the Liberty campus and then on another day we travel to a convention center where we complete our role plays and compete,”  President of Leadership, junior Lalana Karri, said via email. “However, the test this year was all open-resource and the role plays were recorded by students who uploaded them privately on youtube to be judged.”

Students could choose to compete in a principles event, individual event, team event, or written event and had approximately two days to submit video recordings of their event presentations in addition to taking a 100 question exam with a 70-minute time limit.

“Unlike prior years where we would compete in person, this year students had access to their event materials for up to 2 days and were able to record their presentations,” Vice President of Career Development, senior Safa Ashraf said. “For the testing portion, students were able to take their online exam as usual, except there was a shorter time limit and it was open book.”

This year’s preparation for competitions required more of an independent study for club members. 

“There was a huge disconnect between the officer team and all the competitors this year as we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them before or during the competition,” Ashraf said. “Usually the State Competition is when we get to bond with each other as we spend two and a half days together as a chapter.”