If you like business or foster yourself as an entrepreneur, then Decathlon might be the next club for you. Wootton Decathlon, also known as DECA, is a business club that competes in national business tournaments, role plays within a business structure and writes reports about different business ideas and trends. This club competes in local, state, and national tournaments and hopes to teach students business skills and lessons in entrepreneurship that will be put to use in competition.

Between Apr. 26 and Apr. 29, members of the Decathlon club competed in the annual DECA international conference in Orlando. This four-day conference allowed students to compete in a number of business categories including project management and buying and merchandise ideas. This competition featured Decathlon programs from schools all across the country, offering an opportunity for students to compete against each other in categories of their choosing.

Sophomore Charles Freedman was one of the students in attendance at the DECA international conference and left with an eighth-place finish in the project management category. “My partner and I received an award as international finalists by placing eighth overall from nearly 200 teams in our project management category. For this event, we had to select an important issue going on in the community, and then create a business plan to raise awareness and come up with a solution. We also wrote a 20-page paper, put together a poster board expressing our ideas and created flyers and brochures to present to the judges. This award was the result of many months of preparation that I am very proud of,” Freedman said.

Freedman was not the only Wootton student who came away victorious from the competition. Junior John Wang finished in the top 20 international finalists in the category of buying and selling merchandise. “I was very surprised and excited to have been selected as one of the 20 international finalists at the DECA conference. I hope the success of our club at this tournament will encourage more Wootton students to take part in the club next school year and compete with us as well,” Wang said.

Senior Club President Anjali Gallacher is proud of the club’s performance at the national tournament and is hopeful to improve member recruitment and enroll more students in the DECA workspace community to compete in tournaments. “My job as club president is to help arrange transportation, manage recruitment and schedule all group meetings every two weeks. After our success at nationals this year, I am hopeful more students interested in business and entrepreneurship will join the club next year and have the opportunity to compete in national tournaments as well as attend our meetings that happen every other Tuesday,” Gallacher said.

With Gallacher and other seniors graduating, the club hopes for continued growth and success in addition to teaching more students the skills and lessons in entrepreneurship and the business world.