On Nov. 10, Amador’s chapter of Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) hosted a competition for its members in the Amador library. This Minicon conference emulated the format of upcoming competitions to give members an idea of what is to come. 

“We wanted to host Minicon to prepare students for the Northern California regional conferences. We gave competitors a roleplay scenario and a written exam. At bigger competitions, the written exam is 100 questions, but we condensed it to 50. It’s like a miniature version of a bigger competition,” said Amador DECA co-president Andrea Yang (‘23).  

DECA members from other schools were also invited, including Dublin High School and Castro Valley. In total, about 50 competitors were present at the minicon. 

“Amador officers organized the event but we asked Dublin and Castro Valley officers to help us. Within the Amador officer team, the presidents were the ones who were leading us in the right direction and assigning tasks. We had our logistics team like Ms. Marajan managing reserving the library, getting all the food and competition materials, and directors of business academy are more in charge of making the test,” said Amador DECA Director of Business Academy Leo Shao (‘24). 

Competitors prepared weeks in advance for the minicon, using resources both found online and provided by the DECA club. This hard work paid off for Minicon winners Arnav Dhole (‘25) and Varadan Kalkunte (‘25). 

“There are DECA workshops during access and lunch meetings, so my partner and I went to them and got a packet that helps us study for practice role plays and such. We also consulted with other DECA members and mentors and worked with them to prepare for the minicon. We also practiced a few roleplays we found online,” said Dhole. 

As DECA continues to grow, it will keep educating students about entrepreneurship, giving them real business opportunities and experience. 

“Business is all around you; it prepares students with project management skills, giving officers opportunities to organize events and allowing members to connect with like minded peers who like business more so than a regular club because [DECA] works almost like a family,” said AV DECA club advisor Marjan Akrami.