DECA, which stands for Distributive Education Clubs Of America, is a program at Tallwood High School that is comprised of students enrolled in Fashion Marketing.

Like many clubs and organizations, DECA itself has competitions in which the students are able to compete and get a chance to place and move on to states and possibly nationals. The first competition that happened was the district competition.

“Our district competition went really well.  This was Mule’s smallest group while being the advisor and she’s had the most (students) place this year….We have two students going to states (Carresa and Olivia) and more people placed in their category as well,” said Azia Alvarez, DECA Vice President.

Parris Sanders, the President of DECA said, “We did fantastic! There’s not much more that we could have expected, especially considering how many people qualified to go to states from the previous year until now!”

Not everything about DECA is all fun and games though. DECA is constantly looking for more ways to raise money.

“I’m hoping for more promotional events that could help raise money for DECA,” said Azia.

One of the ways that DECA raises money is not directly controlled by DECA. This is Advanced Fashion Marketing’s annual fashion show, that just started last year.

“We are holding a fashion show this year which we will start planning very soon. I think the best way to prepare is to figure out where everyone fits in terms of positions. Some people are more behind the scenes and some are more spotlight type people. For me, I prefer behind the scenes work when it comes to the actual layout of the show,” said Azia.

“The advanced fashion program, not DECA, is learning the skills to plan a fashion show! We hope to start planning soon in order to have our fashion show sometime later in the spring. It is important to learn about promotional plans and merchandising first so we can implement it throughout the show,” said Parris.

“DECA is a club for students in a Marketing class, so we basically do things involving students within those classes, and have events for DECA members. We did an angel tree drive in December and maybe we’ll do something for DECA seniors towards the end of the school year.”

DECA is a program built for the students and by the students of fashion marketing to help stem their creative and innovative sides, while teaching them responsibility. Many look forward to what else this program can bring in the future.