Over many years, Apex DECA has continued to do well and flourish. Students start off by competing at districts and if they qualify, they go onto States. From there, they can qualify for ICDC. From February 15th to 19th, Apex DECA competed at states and many things were different. The award ceremony was just last week, and I interviewed one of the DECA board members, Michael Vaglia, to find out how Apex did and how things were different this year at states due to COVID.

Q: What is your position on the Apex Deca board?
A: I am the VP of Operations.

Q: What was it like being a board member during these unprecedented times?
A: Being a board member, I was really impressed and proud of our team for how we were able to tackle the many challenges we faced this year. I feel like we were able to make the best out of an unideal situation.

Q: How did Apex do at States?
A: A lot of people won glass, which means they got in the top five of their events. Overall, we did very well.

Q: Do you know how many people qualified for ICDC?
A: We had around over half of our state’s competitors qualify for ICDC.

Q: How was this year different from the previous years?
A: This year was a lot different than normal. We did not meet our judges face to face this year, and we did not get to go to the convention center or meet other DECA chapters.

Q: What was it like competing differently this year?
A: For my group, we had to record a presentation over Zoom and use our technical skills a lot more this year. It added a new level of difficulty because we had to make sure we did not have any technical problems while trying to work on the presentation.

Q: How do you think COVID affected Deca overall this year?
A: COVID really tested our members ‘decacation’ but also prepared them at a younger age for the online world and the post-COVID business world, which will benefit them in the long run.

Q: What category were you competing in?
A: The category was Financial Literacy Project, and I was in a group with Kushi Lehal and Krish Patel. For our project, we went to meetings or conducted virtual meetings with different boys and girls clubs around the community. We would conduct presentations and activities that would focus on different financial literacy practices such as budgeting or comparison shopping. Our end goal was to help at-risk youth and their families have the ability to make smart financial decisions during the pandemic.

Q: How did you do?
A: Kushi, Krish, and I placed second in our event.

Q: What will ICDC look like this year?
A: ICDC will be a virtual conference like districts and states but on a bigger scale with Deca members from around the world.

Q: How will you prepare for this ICDC competition?
A: Kushi, Krish, and I will look over our award-winning presentation from states and take notes and practice more for this ICDC presentation. We now know to bring our A-game. We hope to be the first Apex members to place at ICDC.

Despite these changes and challenges that COVID brought, Apex DECA was very successful at the state’s competition. Congratulations to everyone who competed and placed in this competition! Good luck to everyone who qualified for ICDC! Those who are interested in Deca but did not join this year should definitely try it out next year!