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| Contributed photo One of Caribou’s DECA teams that won States, the trio of Chelsea Martin, Delaney Williams and Sabrina Haney took on Nationals in late April. |
By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU/ANAHEIM, CA — They many not have come home with the gold, but three of Caribou’s DECA State champions returned from Nationals in Disney Land late last month plenty to be proud of.
“I couldn’t be prouder,” said their DECA Advisor Reed Nonken. “Given all the things that were against us, the team performed really well.”
Team members Sabrina Haney, Chelsea Martin and Delaney Williams worked extra hard to get to California, because while most students focus on one project for States — these three students made two.
“Very few people choose to do more than one [DECA] event, but because they did it worked out well for them,” Nonken explained. DECA used to be the acronym for Distributive Educational Club of America, but the entity embodies more of an entrepreneurial, business and marketing organization for students, as Nonken explained.
The extra project didn’t come easy — on top of their school work, chores, jobs and extracurricular obligations, the students somehow found an extra 30 to 40 hours to make their extra project solid.
“It took a while,” Haney said. “We did some of it outside of school, some of it in school — and about a week of working non-stop.”
Rewarded for their hard work, the trio won States and — thanks to some generous support — was able to fly out to California for four days of competition.
Williams’ first impression of California may have taken place at around 4:30 a.m. when their redeye flight landed, but the differences were apparent.
“It was very bright, and it was different from the potato fields we see here — and a variety of different people,” she described. After a few hours of sleep, the group squeezed in a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm (an amusement park) before the DECA Opening Ceremonies.
“When we walked into the convention center the first day for opening ceremonies, I thought it was going to be just like the Performing Arts Center here — but it was huge,” Haney described. “It felt like it was a mile long, and we had to walk for maybe five minutes to get to our seats because there were so many people there.”
There were 16,000 teenagers competing at Nationals — nearly double the entire population of Caribou.
“There were three teams at States that we competed against for this challenge,” Haney explained. “It was a little intimidating because just looking at all the things the other teams prepared, they were different than ours.”
“Coming from little Maine and having this be our first experience … it was expected, and still unexpected,” Williams explained.
While they group searched for their seats, they found out that they themselves were sought after due to the “rare” nature of Maine DECA pins.
“Every state has a pin that you can trade with other states, and everybody wanted a Maine pin because there weren’t very many of them,” Haney said.
Putting Maine’s representation at nationals in context, Nonken explained that Maine had a total of 76 competitors at States. For example, Texas students have to compete in regional and tri-state competition before they can ever compete in States, and even then only the very top ranking students were selected for Nationals — all 500 of them.
Not only was Caribou’s little team outnumbered at Nationals — they were grossly out-resourced.
“We were up against kids that have professional level displays, laptops, projectors … they had these beautiful marquis and it was just amazing the amount of money — just for us to ship that stuff out there would have been expensive,” Nonken explained. On top of the resource factor, may states allow students to participate in DECA for four years — as oppose to two in Maine.
“I think that was kind of intimidating, seeing people lined up with these beautiful displays, dressed up in business suits with matching footwear … that is what’s expected in the business world, and yet we know we can’t quite compete at that level, so we do the best that we can,” he added.
“We had our posters and a little travel easel — but even so, the team was already unfortunately behind the eight ball because of the financial restrictions we have,” Nonken said.
They three-woman team may not have had all the bells and whistles to advance there project to the top of the ranks, but they proved that they certainly have the brains; there are to parts to the project event the girls competed in — one part was a written exam, the other part was the presentation.
Teams that score above roughly a 70 percent reach what’s called “Certificate Level,” and all three girls achieved that distinction.
“The test was really hard,” Haney said.
Aside from the difficult test, the team was scrutinized by a hard-hitting judge — but the students didn’t back down and they presented their work with confidence and resolve that will help them prepare for real-world experiences in academia and beyond.
“Just being in front of the judge — with adrenaline rushing, and you have to remember what you want to say …” Martin described with a huge, knowing smile.
“It was really a life experience,” Haney said. “in the business world you’re always competing against other businesses, and we were competing against all those other people to have our promotion plan be the best that it could be.”
At Nationals, the team couldn’t help but notice some of the other teams, including how some of the other teams had very restrictive schedules centered primarily around studying during the whole event — something that Caribou’s team isn’t interested in emulating.
“A lot of people take this very seriously — we do a combination of taking it seriously, but having fun,” Nonken explained.
“ — that’s how I learn!” Haney chimed in.
While the two seniors, Haney and Martin, are hoping to still help out as mentors to the DECA team next year, Williams has one more year with the club, and maybe even one more opportunity to proudly represent Maine at Nationals.
“The best part of the experience was getting the opportunity to travel to California, when many people from Maine don’t get that chance, and to just be able to see exactly how business related things happen,” she explained.
While the school year is winding down, Nonken is hoping to increase community awareness about the club, and the long-reaching impacts it has.
Though neither Haney nor Martin had definite entrepreneurial or marketing-based plans in their future, both are thoughtfully content with the education they’ve learned through being DECA members and students of the Caribou Regional Technology Center.
“I know how businesses work now, and it’s something under my belt now if I ever need it,” Martin said.
For Haney, she not only received a good perspective on what it takes for a business to succeed — she’s gotten a little perspective on the day-to-day of her own entrepreneurial father.
“I didn’t know he worked so hard!” she said.
Nonken is hoping to give Caribou’s DECA Chapter more of a voice in the near future, partnering up with some local businesses going forward to help develop these young entrepreneurs and businesspeople.
“Especially for this area, if we want businesses to succeed, we have to have our young folks prepared now for the environment they’re going to be presented with in college or in the business world, and DECA, I think, is one of the greatest opportunities to get that real world problem solving opportunity in a real-world environment,” Nonken said.
