DECA team brings home big wins at annual competition

Wilfrid Laurier University’s DECA U team made history twice at this year’s DECA U Provincials, winning the DECA U Chapter of the Year Award for the second year in a row and the Largest Chapter Award- which was the largest ever.

The competition, which is part of a conference for DECA U members, took place Jan. 17-19 in Toronto.

“We have been working at it since last April…it was very rewarding,” said DECA Laurier’s co-president, Ishaan Kukreja.

DECA U is an organization that helps students develop their professional skills through networking events and case analysis.  In these case analyses, participants are asked to solve a specific business problem, such as an issue with a company’s marketing department.  Participants must play the role of that company’s marketing team and are given a set amount of time to come up with an appropriate solution.  The organization accepts participants from all programs and 19 universities and colleges have chapters in Ontario.

The Chapter of the Year Award is given to the DECA U chapter that best exemplifies the organization’s three pillars: networking, competition and professional development. Laurier was the first team to win this award two years in a row in DECA U’s ten-year history.

 “For me personally, seeing the team win felt amazing,” said fourth-year bachelor of business administration student, Malvin Seto. This was his first year with DECA Laurier.

DECA U President, Dane Gomez, was impressed with the four school bus loads of students that made up DECA Laurier’s attendees at this year’s provincials.  Of the 350 members, over 200 were in attendance.

“It was our highest number ever…that’s outstanding work done by the team there,” said Gomez.

Accordingly, the team broke the record for the largest chapter.

In addition to the competition, DECA students were able to gain access to networking events as well as listen to keynote speakers over the course of their stay in Toronto.

“I think it helped a lot of students figure out what they wanted to get into,” said Kukreja.

Gomez believes this was the most successful conference yet for DECA U.

 “Everything from the lighting to the keynote speakers…feedback was nothing but positive,” said Gomez.