After advancing from districts in January, many DECA Redhawks will showcase their marketing, finance, hospitality, and management skills on Friday at Texas DECA’s state competition in Dallas. All competitions will take place at the Hilton Anatole Conference Center, where 72 district qualifiers will participate in exams, presentations, and performance-based competitions. 

The conference begins with an opening ceremony Thursday, followed by competitions Friday, and concludes Saturday with the Grand Awards Ceremony, where top competitors and qualifiers for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Atlanta will be announced. 

“This year we had really good results at district, we had over 70 qualify for state, which is double of last year,” DECA advisor Demas Lamas said. “I’m really proud of the way they handled themselves. And this year it was even more competitive because they had to qualify to even go to districts, so I’m really excited about how many people will go to ICDC, and hopefully, we’ll take a lot of kids to Atlanta.” 

Senior Shanvi Mohan is excited to make the most of her last state CDC and hopes to come back with Texas DECA glass (awarded to the top 10 competitors for each event). 

“I’m super excited about this year to compete and meet all my friends that I made last year at state and ICDC again, as well as meet new people,” Mohan said. “Since I’m a senior this year, it’s probably one of my last DECA conferences ever, and I’m really excited to make the most of it. I’m going to miss all of our late-night practice sessions and paper revisions, but most of all being a part of something as amazing and unique as DECA. Hopefully, we come back to liberty with Texas DECA Glass.”