When junior Lauren Muse was at West Forsyth High School in Georgia last year, DECA was an opportunity, presented by her Marketing Principles teacher, for her to develop her potential in the business area.

When she moved to Oviedo last summer, she noticed this school was missing a business focused club, so she took the initiative to bring DECA with her.

“Being part of this club in Georgia was such an amazing experience and opportunity,” said Muse. “I didn’t want anyone to miss out on it.”

DECA is an international business organization focuses on marketing, finance, and hospitality and management. It prepares students for the real world by helping them hone in on their professional and business skills.

The club had its first meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 10 in room 7-126, hosted by the advisor of the club and business teacher Kyle Hosteadter.

“It gives them the ability to understand the business world and the opportunity to look more into those kind of fields,” said Hostedter.

Hostedter teaches Sports Marketing, Intro to Digital Communication, and is also the boys lacrosse coach. He majored in Sports and Entertainment Marketing in college, making him a natural choice for DECA.

At the first meeting, they talked about what the club was, things that they will be doing and the places where they can potentially travel to.

“There was a good turnout and people seemed really interested in what the club has to offer,” said Muse.

Members can participate in state and national competition. In these competitions everyone is required to dress in business professional attire, which includes blazers, pantsuits, heels, or similar clothing. Once at the competition, members will participate in role play events, which is when they are given a scenario and they have to come up with a business plan to fix the problem. There is also a business manual which is where they do marketing research on a local company and present their findings to a judge.

“I would love for us to start competing in local tournaments and then eventually national tournaments,” said Hofsteadter. “We’re going to start off small and then hopefully we will grow into something stable and recognized at this school.”

Some of the competitions that the club will be participating in include the Career Development Conference in Orlando and the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. To prepare themselves for the competitions they will role play every couple weeks for 30-45 minutes.

Some of the other locations that they could potentially travel to include, Anahein, California and Nashville, Tennessee. As a club they will also be participating in community service and challenges hosted by DECA, Inc.

“This past summer, I competed with DECA at the state and national level winning first place awards,” said Muse. “It was such an amazing experience and opportunity.”

As a new club to this school and such a turnout of 30 people at the first meeting, Muse hopes that this club can not only provides a focus and a drive for students to be successful in the future, but to also shape the future aspirations of the students just like the club did to her.

“When I first started in the club I had zero interest in business,” said Muse. “But because of the amazing experiences and opportunities DECA has given time, I now want to major in business.”