On January 16, DECA had a blast as they attended the District 5 Conferences at Arizona State University- Tempe Campus.  Going up against all schools from the Chandler and Tempe Unified School District, ACP dominated the competition with 68 out of 88 students earning medals for test scores or role plays. Our school performed so well that two students, Sebastian Ybrahim and Arianne Law, were offered internships.

I interviewed sophomore Arianne Law to express what she had to say about her remarkable accomplishment and on DECA in general.

Q: Is this your first year in DECA?

A: Yes, this is my first year in DECA. Being in my first year of DECA, I really enjoy having the opportunity to be in DECA. It’s amazing to meet so many talented, skilled competitors and successful people around me.

Q: What category did you participate in for Districts?

A: I participated in the category of Principles of Business Administration & Management.

Q: Can you explain what the day of competition was like?

A: I was extremely nervous; I took the time to review and study a lot of business related vocabulary from online websites beforehand, yet I still felt unprepared. However, right before I walked into the room to do my part, I found myself extremely calm and thought that everything was going to be okay. I can’t fully describe the kind of peace I felt at that moment, but it was very soothing and cleared most of my jitters.

Q: Are you planning on going to the State Competition?

A: Yes, I plan to compete in the State Competition and in the same category that I previously competed in at Districts.

Q: Can you explain how you got an internship opportunity?

A: When the awards ceremony concluded, I was filled with gratitude toward everyone who supported me and helped me along the entire way. As our school was about to take a group photo, Mrs. Dalton came and congratulated me saying, “Congratulations! When you go back to school tomorrow, your teacher or Coach Blue will talk to you about an internship opportunity”.

Q: How did you feel when you were offered a possibility to do an internship?

A: When I received the news that I was offered an opportunity for an internship, I was astonished from what I had heard. In the back of my head, I was in shock; I thought I heard wrong and that it was some sort of mistake. I thought to myself that there were so many phenomenal students there and I kept wondering, Why me?  I never found a reason to how I received this opportunity or why they chose me. I am still so amazed on the fact that I was given the opportunity for an internship, but I’m really grateful to my family, Coach Blue, all my teachers, and most of all the friends who supported me that day I was going into my competition.

A huge congratulations to DECA for their remarkable accomplishment; we can’t wait to see them crush it again at the State Career Development Conference in February!