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Moffat County High School DECA team hits state

FBLA to attend competition in Vail in April

Andy Bockelman
DECA adviser Krista Schenck, right, and Moffat County High School seniors Bob Meyers, left, and Elisa Teeter take a break in Schenck's classroom during lunch. Meyers and Teeter were among the students who competed at the state level for DECA last weekend and will also compete on behalf of MCHS's FBLA team in April.
Andy Bockelman

DECA and FBLA

• The following Moffat County High School students qualified for the DECA state tournament in Colorado Springs last weekend, competing in a number of events:

Aubrey Campbell — Marketing Management

Marissa Hulstine — Principles of Marketing

Conner Kopsa — Restaurant and Food Services

Bob Meyers — Accounting and Entrepreneurship Plan, Written

Maryliz Ramos — Apparel and Accessories

Elisa Teeter — Food Marketing and Advertising Campaign, Written

— Meyers qualified for the finals but was not chosen to attend the national competition.

• The following MCHS students will attend the state competition for FBLA in Vail in April.

Aubrey Campbell — Personal Finance

Conner Kopsa — Healthcare Administration

Bob Meyers — Business Law

Katelyn Peroulis — Accounting

Elisa Teeter — Business Procedures

Landon Weis — Cyber Security

— For more information on DECA and FBLA, call adviser Krista Schenck at 970-826-6561.

DECA and FBLA

• The following Moffat County High School students qualified for the DECA state tournament in Colorado Springs last weekend, competing in a number of events:

Aubrey Campbell — Marketing Management

Marissa Hulstine — Principles of Marketing



Conner Kopsa — Restaurant and Food Services

Bob Meyers — Accounting and Entrepreneurship Plan, Written



Maryliz Ramos — Apparel and Accessories

Elisa Teeter — Food Marketing and Advertising Campaign, Written

— Meyers qualified for the finals but was not chosen to attend the national competition.

• The following MCHS students will attend the state competition for FBLA in Vail in April.

Aubrey Campbell — Personal Finance

Conner Kopsa — Healthcare Administration

Bob Meyers — Business Law

Katelyn Peroulis — Accounting

Elisa Teeter — Business Procedures

Landon Weis — Cyber Security

— For more information on DECA and FBLA, call adviser Krista Schenck at 970-826-6561.

For a lot of kids entering the real world, the workings of the job market will remain a mystery for some time. However, some students at Moffat County High School already have got a pretty good idea of how to function and thrive in many fields.

The MCHS DECA team attended the state tournament from Feb. 22 to 25 in Colorado Springs, competing in numerous events.

Out of all the students who went on the trip, senior Bob Meyers had the best results in the categories of accounting and the written entrepreneurship plan. The former part of the activity involves keeping an accounting journal and being well-versed enough in numbers that one can give financial advice to whoever needs it, while the latter involves compiling a plan for your own business.

“I was going to do a video game development company,” he said.

Meyers beat out dozens of competitors to make it to the finals at state, the only member of his team to advance that far. The shortlist was cut from 10 in that round to the top five to determine who would represent Colorado at the national level, a cut he did not make.

Even so, what surprised the two-year veteran of the team was that his teammate and fellow senior Elisa Teeter also didn’t move on to the finals in her categories.

Teeter, part of the organization every year of high school, participated in the food marketing and written advertising campaign events. Although the competition didn’t quite turn out the way she wanted, she said she still thinks she has learned a lot from her involvement with the group, as did Meyers.

“I’ve been able to communicate better, and I think that’s the primary thing you get out of DECA,” Meyers said.

One thing that’s tough for anyone with DECA is to describe exactly what the activity is. DECA — Distributive Education Clubs of America — essentially offers participants a look at business practices by imparting knowledge about finance, marketing, hospitality and different types of management and letting students apply them to simulations at competition.

The goal is to build a foundation in the field that students can apply for years afterward.

“It’s kind of showed me what I want to do after high school,” Teeter said.

She’ll study hospitality management at Virginia Tech after she graduates. Meyers plans to major in biomedical engineering at Montana State University and hopes to use put his business experience to use in that arena.

Teeter and Meyers also participate in the joint group FBLA — Future Business Leaders of America — and will attend state in April.

Adviser Krista Schenck has 14 students doing either or both DECA and FBLA this year. She has seen many of those involved qualify for as high as national competitions, a feat that is made more impressive because some start as shy and uncertain during classes.

The format of DECA and FBLA helps change that and make students more outgoing, Schenck said. Much like the speech and debate team, the more presentations DECA students do, the easier it becomes.

“It really builds their confidence, they write speeches for graduation and things like that,” Schenck said. “It helps them build that friendship and camaraderie.”

Schenck is hosting a meeting at 5 p.m. March 6 at MCHS as a way to seek out new methods to strengthen the abilities of kids in DECA and FBLA and in classes of similar subject matter.

One of the activities that always has been a part of the organization is its ability to bring in money to travel and compete through selling concessions at school activities or operating the school store, which was reinstated this year.

“They’re fundraising machines,” Schenck said.

Contact Andy Bockelman at 970-875-1793 or abockelman@CraigDailyPress.com.


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