by Preston Lui
From left to right: Terry Xiao (Entrepreneurship Trainer), Eric Weng (Finance Trainer), Preston Lui (Hospitality and Tourism Trainer), Celine Fu (Marketing Trainer), Ashley Yiu (Hospitality and Tourism Trainer), Grace Cheng (Business Management and Administration Trainer), Valerie Ip (Finance Trainer), Clara Fu (President)

DECA has long been one of St. Augustine’s best and most respected clubs. With 164 of the brightest students in the school in 2023 coming together to compete in North America’s largest student business competition, it’s hard to imagine a more competitive club. Well, you don’t have to imagine. This year, things just got real. 

For the first time since DECA’s founding at St. Augustine, the club decided to implement an entrance exam to select its members, modeled after the very exams DECA uses to judge its competitors. Over 200 applicants stayed after school on October 2nd, 2024 to participate in the exam and to compete over the 78 open spaces, ultimately forming a team of 104 including previous provincial qualifiers, executives, and St. Augustine’s in-house DECA Boot Camp participants who were exempted from the exam.

However, was this exam a good thing? How did this exam affect the club’s performance? We now have official numbers after the 2024 Area 1 DECA Regionals happened on November 9th, 2024 in Sinclair Secondary School in Whitby, in which thousands of students from across various areas participated. 

In the 2023-2024 year, St. Augustine DECA had 164 members, and 36 of those members qualified for provincials. This year, with 104 members, while only 35 competitors qualified, which is one less than the previous year, it was a major boost in the percentage of qualifiers – 33.6% compared to 21.9%. Additionally, it was noted that many younger members qualified this year compared to last year, which included many Grade 12s who would not be returning to pass down their skills. 

11 of the 12 DECA executives were also polled on their thoughts about the entrance exam. While some did not agree with how the qualifier was carried out, citing the short length of the exam as well as the lack of a speaking component, they unanimously agreed that some sort of qualifier was necessary to limit DECA membership. Commonly cited points were the low level of commitment that some students showed in previous years, and the improved focus for executives to train committed members as they had to deal with far fewer students. 

We are also fortunate enough to have been able to conduct an exclusive interview with Ms Brizzi, St. Augustine DECA’s primary teacher advisor, to answer some questions about the exam and regionals this year.

Why did you implement an entrance exam this year?

“Because there were quite a number of students interested in DECA, and we have limited spots so we wanted to make sure that the program was very competitive.” 

What do you think could be improved from the entrance exam, and do you plan to introduce it again next year?

“Yes, we are going to continue to do it like many other schools do, and that just sets a higher bar and a higher standard for students who are coming in to compete, because the bar is very high for DECA students.”

How do you think DECA and Regionals went this year compared to last year? 

“Overall well, unfortunately we had to travel quite a distance, but overall I think students were very successful and they had a lot of good roleplays, their exam marks could still use some improvement but again we have a lot of new students 9 and 10 or even senior students that are new to DECA and they did very well.”

What would be your favourite part about being a DECA advisor?

“Just seeing the successes of all the students and how well they progress throughout the year.”

Any final words to competitors that went to Regionals this year?

“Everyone did a fantastic job and I’m very proud of them.”

It is clear from the polling, the numbers, and this interview that the DECA entrance exam was overall a success and is likely to continue being implemented for the foreseeable future, so if you want to get into DECA next year, better get studying! For those that were admitted, job well done to everyone that participated at regionals! 

Special congratulations to the following students who won awards:

Ronen Bakshi (Automotive Services Marketing) – Top 10 Roleplay, Top 10 Overall, 3rd Place Overall

Celine Fu (Food Marketing) – Top 10 Exam, Top 10 Roleplay, Top 10 Overall

Eloise Nose (Entrepreneurship) – Top 10 Exam, Top 10 Roleplay, Top 10 Overall

Nicole Li (Human Resources Management) – Top 10 Exam

Grace Cheng (Human Resources Management) – Top 10 Roleplay, Top 10 Overall

Jasper Hung (Marketing Communications) – Top 10 Exam

Terry Xiao (Marketing Communications) – Top 10 Roleplay

Naomi Lue (Restaurant and Food Service Management) – Top 10 Exam, Top 10 Overall

Preston Lui (Restaurant and Food Service Management) – Top 10 Exam, Top 10 Roleplay, Top 10 Overall

Malin Daunt (Retail Merchandising) – Top 10 Overall

Principles:

Rowan Lim (Principles of Entrepreneurship) – Top 10 Exam, Top 10 Overall 

Matthew Yang (Principles of Hospitality) – Top 10 Exam

Justin Cheung (Principles of Hospitality) – Top 10 Overall 

Aidan Pereira (Principles of Marketing) – Top 10 Exam

Teams:

Rachael Chan (Hospitality Services Team Decision Making) – Top 10 Exam

Rachael Chan, Chloe Wai (Hospitality Services Team Decision Making) – Top 8 Overall

Chloe Huang, Alyssa Lum (Hospitality Services Team Decision Making) – Top 10 Roleplay

Peter Lu (Marketing Management Team Decision Making) – Top 10 Exam

Bosco Yu, Ryan Ip (Marketing Management Team Decision Making) – Top 10 Roleplay, Top 8 Overall