DECA Ontario

DECA Ontario (An association of DECA Inc.) is a Provincial association of high school, university students and advisers of business studies. The organization's purpose is to prepare future leaders and young entrepreneurs for careers and education in marketing, finance, hospitality, management, and other business areas. Similarly to DECA Inc., DECA Ontario has three primary divisions: the high school division (known simply as "DECA Ontario"), the university/college division (DECA U), and the alumni division (The Alumni Network). DECA Ontario, students are mentored by some of the strongest leaders in the business fields and are guided by numerous supportive corporate and community sponsors to provide 'out-of-classroom' experiences. In Ontario, DECA is also an identified component of the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) program. Through experiential programming, students are given many reach ahead opportunities that they can apply to their SHSM designation on their OSSD (Ontario Secondary School Diploma).

Conferences

The Regional Competition is available to all DECA Ontario members. In order to accommodate the needs of all chapters across the Province, different school chapters compete in different 'regions'. Some of these regions include: Peel, Toronto, Hamilton, Waterloo-Kitchener, and York.

DECA members can choose to compete in any one of a number of categories: there are 17 individual event categories (of which 4 are reserved only for first year members), and 7 team events. The Regional Competition includes a written multiple choice exam, and an oral case component. Students in an individual event have 10 minutes for preparation and 10 minutes to present in front of a judge. Teams have 30 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to present. Judges include past DECA alumni, current business students, and industry professionals.

The Provincial Competition (hosted in February) is available to members who qualify from an oral business event at a Regional Competition, or for those who chose to compete in a written business event (students who wish to compete in a written business event automatically qualify for the Provincial Competition). In the Provincial Competition, students compete for a spot to represent Ontario and Canada at the International Career Development Conference (DECA Internationals). Competition at the Provincial level is heavy, as around 300-400 students out of about 6,000 are chosen to compete internationally. In addition to competing, the Provincial conference also offers workshops, academies, and networking for students wishing to advance their business skills.

Competition Categories

DECA offers a large variety of categories available to all delegates for competition purposes. These categories range encompass a plethora of functional business aspects and typically have corporate sponsors for each category as well. There are three different types of categories once can compete in which includes (1) Individual Oral and Principle Events - must compete as an individual (2) Team Oral Events - compete with one partner and finally (3) Special Events - these events have their own distinct rule set. A breakdown of the categories within each type of event is shown below:

Individual Oral and Principle Events

• Accounting Application
• Apparel and Accessories Marketing
• Automotive Services Marketing
• Business Finance Series
• Business Services Marketing
• Food Marketing Series
• Hotel and Lodging Management
• Human Resources Management
• Marketing Management
• Personal Financial Literacy
• Quick Serve Restaurant Management
• Restaurant and Food Service Management
• Retail Merchandising
• Sports and Entertainment Marketing
• Principles of Business Administration and Management
• Principles of Marketing
• Principles of Hospitality and Tourism
• Principles of Finance

Team Oral Events

• Business Law and Ethics
• Buying and Merchandising
• Financial Analysis
• Hospitality Services
• Marketing Communications Team Decision Making
• Sports and Entertainment Marketing
• Travel and Tourism Marketing

Special Events

• Advertising Campaign
• Business Law and Ethics
• Buying and Merchandising
• Case Boss
• Financial Analysis
• Hospitality Services
• Innovation Challenge
• Marketing Communications Team Decision Making
• Professional Selling Event
• Sports and Entertainment Marketing
• Travel and Tourism Marketing
• Virtual Business Challenge Retail
• Virtual Business Challenge Sports
• Leadership Development Academy
• Stock Market Game
• H&R Block Dollars and Sense
• Virtual Business Challenge Restaurant

Provincial Executive Officer Program (High School Division)

DECA Ontario's Provincial Executive Officer Team consists of one President and seven student executives. A new team of officers is appointed every year. The Provincial Executive Officer Team works with DECA Ontario's Board of Directors with membership development and services, website development, social media management, Regional & Provincial conference promotion, member and chapter encouragement, and service of the members and advisors. The selection process for the Provincial Executive Officer Team is rigorous, as numerous students compete for a limited number of positions. Provincial Officers are among the top students across Ontario, and often demonstrate excellence in academics, extra-curricular involvements, and achieve high results in DECA.

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2018-2019	President	Maria Diogenous	Glenview Park Secondary School
2018-2019	Secretary	Jensen Pletch	Centre Wellington District High School
2018-2019	Branding and Communications Officer	Bill Le	Blyth Academy Waterloo
2018-2019	Events Coordinator	Yash Gajaria	Rick Hansen Secondary School
2018-2019	Media Coordinator	Chawla Keshav	Markville Secondary School
2018-2019	Chapter Development Officer	Matthew Wilson	Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute
2018-2019	Chapter Development Officer	Vyoma Fadia	Earl Haig Secondary School

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2017-2018	President	Jinwu Liu	Bayview Secondary School
2017-2018	Secretary	Vyoma Fadia	Earl Haig SS
2017-2018	Media Coordinator	James Quinlan	Woburn CI
2017-2018	Events Coordinator	Maria Diogenous	Glenview Park SS
2017-2018	Chapter Liaison Officer	Adam Dorfman	Thornhill SS
2017-2018	Chapter Liaison Officer	Harry Chen	London Central SS
2017-2018	Branding and Communications Coordinator	Sarina Wong	The University of Toronto Schools

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2016–2017	President	Venia Veselovsky	Westdale SS
2016–2017	Secretary	Anna Shinn	Havergal College
2016–2017	Media Coordinator	Jessica Fung	Marc Garneau CI
2016–2017	Events Coordinator	Shangbing Jiang	Bloor CI
2016–2017	Events Coordinator	Lucy Chen	William Lyon Mackenzie CI
2016–2017	Chapter Liaison Officer	Ben Levy	Thornhill SS
2016–2017	Chapter Liaison Officer	Rahul Bathija	John Fraser SS
2016–2017	Branding and Communications Coordinator	Rishi Bansal	Bayview Secondary School

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2015–2016	President	Emily Fraser	Sir John A. Macdonald (Waterloo)
2015–2016	Secretary	Wendy Wei	Centennial CVI
2015–2016	Media Coordinator	Mark Laufert	Centennial CVI
2015–2016	Co-Events Coordinator	Rushi Gajaria	Gordon Graydon Memorial SS
2015–2016	Co-Events Coordinator	Ann Chen	Victoria Park CI
2015–2016	Chapter Liaison Officer	Karim El Sewedy	Abbey Park High School
2015–2016	Chapter Liaison Officer	Graham Swarbrick	Resurrection CSS
2015–2016	Branding and Communications Coordinator	Christian Cutts	Parkdale Collegiate

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2014–2015	President	Jeff Sheng	Markville SS
2014–2015	Secretary	Laura Fong	The Woodlands School
2014–2015	Media Coordinator	Heather Tang	The University of Toronto Schools
2014–2015	Co-Events Coordinator	Peter Drivas	East York CI
2014–2015	Co-Events Coordinator	Sarai Castrejon	St. Aloysius Gonzaga
2014–2015	Chapter Development Officer	Emily Fraser	Sir John A. Macdonald (Waterloo)
2014–2015	Chapter Development Officer	Lucy Gong	Markville SS
2014–2015	Branding and Communications Coordinator	Alex Wu	Northern SS

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2013–2014	President	Jerry Zhang	Bayview Secondary School
2013–2014	Secretary	Katie Rieger	Bluevale CI
2013–2014	Media Coordinator	Jake Jardine	Parkside High School
2013–2014	Co-Events Coordinator	Rida Aamer	Glenforest SS
2013–2014	Co-Events Coordinator	Harman Jassal	Turner Fenton SS
2013–2014	Chapter Development Officer	Anthony Perreira	St. Roch SS
2013–2014	Chapter Development Officer	Cassidy Ishmael	St. Francis Xavier SS
2013–2014	Branding and Communications Coordinator	Brett Israel	Resurrection Catholic SS

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2012–2013	President	James Sun	Earl Haig SS
2012–2013	Secretary	Mariam Rafo	Notre Dame SS
2012–2013	Co-Events Coordinator	Isabella Chiu	UTS
2012–2013	Co-Events Coordinator	Sarah Liu	UTS
2012–2013	Chapter Development Officer	Jack Fenton	Bayview Glen
2012–2013	Chapter Development Officer	Katie Flanagan	Sir John A Macdonald SS
2012–2013	Chapter Development Officer	Andrew Shon	Earl Haig SS
2012–2013	Public Relations/Communication Officer	Jerry Zhang	Bayview Secondary School
2012–2013	Reporter	Jake Jardine	Parkside HS

Year	Position	Officer	High School
2010–2011	President	Nida Noorani	UTS
2010–2011	Communications/Public Relations Officer	Lori Ossip	TanenbaumCHAT Wallenberg
2010–2011	Events Coordinator	Kathy Zhang	Bayview SS
2010–2011	Secretary	Ritu Parikh	Turner Fenton SS
2010–2011	Reporter	Abeeha Batool	Father Michael Goetz Catholic SS
2010–2011	Regional Representative	Kevin Wong	Vaughan SS
2010–2011	Regional Representative	Carter Grant	St Marguerite d'Youville SS

DECA U (University/College Division)

For interested university/college students, a specialized program which allows matriculated students to continue to participate in DECA is available. DECA U (short for University), is an association of Collegiate DECA, and operates in numerous prestigious institutions across Ontario.

Some of the associated Universities include: Ryerson University, University of Western Ontario, Brock University, University of Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University, McMaster University, Queen's University, University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, York University, University of Ottawa, Humber College and University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

The Alumni Network (Alumni Division)

In 2013, The Alumni Network was created to serve as Ontario's Official DECA Alumni Division. The division seeks to harvest a strong professional network for previous DECA Ontario and DECA U members to connect to after graduating. The network is designed to not only allow alumni to connect to each other, but also to provide opportunities for alumni to give back at DECA Ontario and DECA U conferences and competitions.

External links

• The Official Website of DECA Ontario
• The Official Website of DECA U
• The Official Website of The Alumni Network
• The Official Website of DECA Inc.