A group of students at Waterford High School are learning that business isn’t strictly business.
Members of DECA, or Distributive Education Clubs of America, are learning that it takes more than balance sheets and quarterly reports to become a success in business.
“We’ve learned that business is also about leadership, making a good impression,” Mitchell Hadfield, a senior, said. “It’s also about meeting as many people as possible.”
Hadfield, along with classmates Harrison Arnold, Aaron Feinberg, and Gabe Benjamin, revived the DECA program at WHS, after about a decade of dormancy.
In essence, DECA is like a Rotary Club or Lions Club for high school students. It is affiliated with Delta Epsilon Chi, an international group focused on students studying marketing and management, for those interested in business, finance, and hospitality.
DECA has more than 4,000 chapters in high schools across North America and Germany, sponsors competitions, and hosts conferences where students can network with each other.
Earlier in the year, the school sent representatives from the group to a conference in Southington, where they heard lectures on leadership skills.
“The conferences teach them how to market and promote themselves,” Nicole Lourenco, a business teacher and the group’s advisor, said.
The quartet of seniors are the officers of the club and manage the high school’s gift shop, where students and parents can purchase Waterford-themed items.
“It’s taught us a lot of about fiscal responsibility,” Arnold said.
The group is responsible for taking orders and maintaining the inventory. Usually, the students work at shop during their study halls, which has forced them to become more fastidious with their time.
“Meeting deadlines,” Hadfield said. “That’s been the hardest part.”
WHS Principal Donald Macrino praised DECA as “another layer of complexity to what we do here at the high school.”
“It’s teaching the kids good business practices,” he said.
Lourenco said the students “are still getting their feet wet with DECA.
But the group already can chalk up its first success of the year.
DECA organized the school-wide fund-raiser for the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation, a charity named for an alumna of the school.
The school accepted donations in return for pink T-shirts that students wore throughout the third week of October.
The week culminated with students wearing the shirts at a home football game on Oct. 17.
At the end of a week of fund-raising, DECA donated $2,000 to the foundation.
Lourenco mentioned it was a genuine outpouring of school spirit.
“Usually, you only see that during spirit week or on Lancer Day,” she said. “It was phenomenal, the students, faculty, and staff all got behind it.”
Benjamin said the fund-raiser was part of an overall culture of service at the high school.
All WHS students must complete 80 hours of community service in their four years at the school to graduate.
Many students tend to slack on the requirement until their senior year, even though the school recommends doing 20 hours a year.
Even though it may take some students a while to get going on community service, Benjamin said most find it “enjoyable.”
“It feels good to give back to the places that need it,” he said.
Feinburg said that many students donate time at the community center and volunteering at parks and recreation-sponsored baseball and softball games.
Benjamin added that the community service requirement builds character and gets those involved in the town who might otherwise not offer to volunteer.
“Think about this: there are 250 students in a class and they each one of them have to do 80 hours of service,” he said. “That’s a ton of community service.”
The DECA members’ events do not count toward the service requirement, but that doesn’t bother them.
“I’ve had a lot of fun,” Hadfield said. “I have well more than 100 hours; it makes you feel good.”
Also, the four seniors have been mentoring underclassmen to keep DECA alive at the high school.
Looking forward, members of the group are leaning toward studying finance and business in college. But the current economy gives them some pause.
“I wish some of the people on Wall Street had some DECA experience,” Arnold said.
By Stephen Chupaska
Staff Writer