Some may think the only organizations that can qualify for state are sports.

But DECA can too.

Distributive Education Clubs of America or DECA is a club that teaches students about the different types of businesses.

“It just prepares you for a type of path in life like business, marketing, or  finance. It’s for people who want learn about that kind of stuff,” sophomore Isabelle Couture said.

Our DECA team went to the regional qualifier on January 16th at Haltom City High School.

“We took 37 students to districts and 31 of us actually qualified for nationals so we did really really well,” senior Sruthi Boddu said.

The students who qualified were Ankita Bantey, Hunter Busenbark, Nikita Bantey, Bradford Ferguson, Kaivalya Gudooru, Adarsh Hullahalli, Sebastian Joseph, Isabella Couture, Anjika Bhalla,Rishab Maniyambeth,Satya Boddu, Gaurav Pichara,  Christian Vega-Munguia, Mai Geller,Hallie Birdsong, Peyton Harris, Rosemary Jotheesh, Chris Sam, Vignesh Chilecampalli, Ankit Shah, Shailesh Ayyalu, Taylor Haydon, Emily Chung, Natasha Sinha, Sruthi Boddu, Kartik Kulkarni, Prashanth Kotla, Nisha Anbu, Sriharika Gottipolu, Anshul Vakil, and Rishab Chander.

Until the competition, students will be preparing in many different ways.

“I’ve been studying 20 to 30 minutes a night,” sophomore Hallie Birdsong said.

Students think the hard work spent studying pays off when they place in a competition.

Along with the hard work they are also making new friends.

“Once I joined I realized I found buisness really interesting and I made a lot of friends and I loved competitions so it kept me going,” senior Boddu said.

DECA students said they are also learning lessons that will help them in their future.

“It’s good experience with adults and interviews and that’s a good skill for future job interviews. For example, in my business management class we are learning how to talk to others and answer customers and stuff so that could help with your real job and how to cope with problems in your office or how to deal with other people,” Couture said.

The state competition is on February 25 and 26 and students are hoping to qualify for internationals.