Student Organization Spotlight: DECA
The following is an overview of the activities that the student organization, Distributive Education Clubs of America, has been working on throughout this semester on Butler’s campus.
Maya Illanes | millanes@butler.edu
DECA is an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management in high schools and colleges across the globe. Through leadership, networking, and collaboration, students learn the ins and outs of the 21st-century workforce while having the opportunity to compete for the title of “best in the world” in one of 25 competitive events.
Eric Bedrosian, Founder and current President of DECA, shares that the Lacy School of Business believes in experiential learning, and DECA is built on the same principles. He describes their members' experiences in DECA as getting to learn from, “mentors of 30+ companies across the United States and getting the opportunity to build their resume and elevate their future careers. They get to explore numerous industries through guest speakers, networking, and keynotes at international conferences,” (Bedrosian).
The organization supports all students who want to explore opportunities in business. They are open to all majors on campus but are made up of mostly business students in the Lacy School of Business.
Throughout the year, the DECA chapter brings together business leaders and professionals through multiple different events. The mentorship program made of presidents, founders, CEOs, and VPs of companies across the US helps members gain hands-on experience through the DECA program. In the past, guest speakers have included people such as the president of Sonic Drive-In, which helps members learn more about varying industries of business.
DECA at Butler is currently the 3rd largest Collegiate DECA chapter in the world with 103 members. Their goal moving forward is to bring the number one title to Butler’s campus. Bedrosian shares that they are looking to bring back international titles to help market the program and LSB to a new group of students, as DECA continues to work hard to support all Butler students positively.
The goals for DECA include growing the program to a group of 150 students while raising the bar in all elements of their programming. Bedrosian says they are, “working hard to collaborate more with other student organizations on campus and hope to bring more volunteer opportunities to the chapter throughout the next year,” (Bedrosian). In addition, they hope to expand DECA’s mentorship program and help more students have the opportunity to attend leadership conferences.
DECA’s most exciting event from this semester was their first-ever callout meeting. Through the callout event, DECA was able to share information about their chapter with over 80 people and they had a few guests in attendance to kick off their first season. Bedrosian shares that, “As we look toward the future, we are excited to continue growing the program at these callout meetings and to work with LSB to have a larger outreach on campus!” (Bedrosian). DECA and its members are excited to continue to grow and help support Butler students all across campus.