By Jacob Bertram
SCTCC Collegiate DECA Officer
With the Cyclone Basketball season upon us, the Business and Sales students had their first practice last Friday. No they didn’t play basketball, but they did practice their free throws.
DECA Business Coaching event was held on Friday, Nov. 22, 2019, and more than 85 students from Becky Shand's and Mark Buchanan’s business classes participated in the event. The day consisted of a mini job fair, networking, and practicing a variety of Collegiate DECA events. The events for that day included Professional Sales, Business-to-Business Marketing, Management, and Human Resource Management.
The students in Becky Shand’s Professional Sales Fundamentals class presented their product in a role-play setting selling to business coaches.
“Before I did the DECA coaching, I was extremely nervous and unaware of how I was going to do with the pressure I was feeling before I started,” said Jacky Bustillos a first year Sales Management Marketing student. “We really didn’t have anything to be worried about because the coaches did an amazing job of making everyone feel comfortable.”
The Sales presentation consisted of 15 minutes of a presentation about a product the students chose. The other 15 minutes gave the opportunity for coaches to give feedback about their presentation.
“The feedback I received from the DECA coaches was very helpful and showed me what I need to practice on and what I did great in which gave me tips on how I can be even better and more prepared for next time,” Bustillos included.
The other students who participated that day were given a case study beforehand, and then they presented their solutions and recommendations to the business coaches for 15 minutes.
“My case was challenging for me at first since I had never done Human Resource Management, but once I presented my case, both the judges recognized my work and they told me what they liked,” expressed Matt Evans, president of our DECA club here on campus. “They really kept everything simple and made it very comfortable to talk to,” added Evans.
The other great networking event that took place that day was a mini job fair. Capital One, ATS, and Preferred Credit were able to talk to students about their companies and the open job positions they have. This also gave the opportunity for students to network with the companies and to build a relationship with them.
“The Mini Job Fair was wonderful way to connect with local businesses interested in our future business, sales, management, and marketing graduates,” said Alicia Berg, Public Relations officer and Recorder for SCTCC Collegiate DECA.
This event prepares the students for DECA DRILLS event on Dec. 6 at SCSU. DECA DRILLS is a competitive event and students will have the opportunity to earn awards for their business presentations skills. After DECA DRILLS is the Collegiate DECA Career Development Conference (CDC), which is held Feb. 27-28, 2020. If students advance from CDC, they could compete in Atlanta, Georgia at the International Career Development Conference which takes place April 21-26, 2020.
Most students who participated in the event had nothing but great things to say.
“DECA coaching was an amazing experience that has taught me how to get out of my comfort zone and give a professional side of me that I hadn’t expressed before. Pushing myself to these unfamiliar situations has better prepared me for the business industry and what real life sales is actually like,” said Bustillos.
We would like to take the time to thank Becky Shand, Mark Buchanan, and the Collegiate DECA officer team for planning and this event. This event gave me the confidence to be ready for the next game day. With the first practice over, the students are now ready to put on their game face and drain the 3-pointer at future DECA competitions!