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Moffat County high school sends 15 students to FBLA, DECA state competitions

The Moffat County High School Future Business Leaders of America and DECA clubs have sent a total of 15 students to the respective state tournaments. The FBLA tournament doesn’t start until April while the DECA tournament is underway, which kicked off on Feb. 1 and runs until Feb. 26.

The Future Business Leaders of America club at Moffat County High School is a club run by business, marketing, and technology teacher Krista Schenck. The club functions as a career path for students interested in majoring in business in college and after college, and works in conjunction with classwork, as students are required to be in a business or marketing class to be in the club.

Part of the competitions is taking a test on subjects such as business law, intro to business presentation, cyber security, and impromptu speaking.



One of the other FBLA events that Schenck mentioned was for graphic designers. The students studying graphic design have to create a new school, complete with a logo and athletic uniforms and more. The team sent four kids to nationals last year.

DECA, or the Distributive Education Club of America at MCHS is also run by Schenck and aims to help kids pursuing a career path in marketing.The club is the same as the FBLA in that it builds upon classwork. Some of the events that the team participates in are the principles of hospitality and tourism, and they have put together a sports and entertainment marketing team to work on projects at the state competition.



The format of the DECA competition is different than it normally is when the students are in person, which can be difficult because students don’t get a read on how they’re doing in the presentation from the judges.

“It’s bizarre, so usually they go and they have 10 minutes to prepare, most of the events you have time to prepare, and now you find out about a day ahead of time and then upload the videos to the judges,” Schenck said.

The DECA tests have been finished but the results won’t be available until the end of February when the state competition comes to an end.

The preparations differ for each activity that the students are working on. One of the current perks of the process is that they receive feedback on their designs or their speeches. The kids are working on fixing and refining their projects and working on things like eye contact.

COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into both clubs’ typical plans this year. The test is usually the most challenging thing, but this year the technological side is proving to be difficult.

“This year it’s definitely recording the role plays. These kids are not fans of recording themselves and overcoming the logistics,” Schneck said. “It is encrypting the links so that people around the country can’t watch them and getting them uploaded to the site.”


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