HARKER ASSOCIATION OF DECA
WWW.HARKERDECA.ORG
Harker DECA Astounds with record-breaking number of wins at
the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference 2015
San Jose, California- From Friday January 8, 2016 to Sunday
January 10, Harker DECA chapter members traveled to the San
Jose Marriot to attend and partake in Silicon Valley’s annual
Career Development Conference. Our chapter set new precedents
and records with 37 finalizing parties, and 19 top three wins. In
addition to the excellent competitive results, two members were
elected to join the Silicon Valley District Action Team for the
2016-2017 year: Alisa Su as Vice President of Public Relations
and Erin Liu as Vice President of Fashion.
Members placing in the top three are as follows
First Place

Arnav Tandon (11), Raymond Xu (11); Finance Operations
Research

Michael Sikand (10), Vanessa Tyagi (10), Dolan Dworak
(10); Advertising Campaign

Chris Hailey (11); Hospitality and Tourism Professional
Selling

Enya Lu (9); Principles of Finance

Alexis Gauba (11); Business Services Marketing Series

Chris Hailey (11); Marketing Management Series

Ria Gandhi (11); Retail Merchandising Series

Enya Lu (9); Financial Consulting

Vanessa Tyagi (10), Rahul Mehta (10); Sports and
Entertainment Team Decision Making

Sophia Luo (12), Shannon Hong (12); Travel and Tourism
Team Decision Making
Second Place

Alexander Mo (11); The Business Growth Plan

Haley Tran (11), Ria Gandhi (11), Ashna Chandra (10);
Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research

Raymond Xu (11); Accounting Applications Series

Haley Tran (11); Restaurant and Food Service Management
Third Place

Michael Wang (9); The Business Growth Plan

Nicole Chen (9), Shreya Dasari (9); International Business
Plan

Derek Kuo (10); Franchise Business Plan

Ankur Karwal (12), Logan Drazovich (10); Innovation Plan

Sanil Rajput (12), Ankur Karwal (12); Marketing
Communications Team Decision Making
Harker DECA members commuted to the Marriott hotel on
Friday, where they would reside and compete for the rest of the
weekend. While waiting for our hotel rooms, the Harker DECA
officer team surprised the members with Jamba Juice for
everyone. The first event of the night was testing. After that,
members walked to the convention center where the Silicon
Valley District Action Team ran the opening ceremony, and held
the annual talent show. The winners of the talent show were able
to pie the SVDAT officers in the face.
Students competed all day on Saturday. Competitions are
divided into two categories: written events and roleplays. Written
events are competitions where students create a business plan and
then present them to the judge. Roleplays are when competitors
are given an allotted amount of time to read and analyze a case
study, then present it to the judge.
The convention came to a close on Sunday morning, at the
awards ceremony. The awards ceremony started with the mini
awards. Harker had 42 teams place at the mini awards. In
between the mini awards and grand awards, breakfast was served
to all 1400 conference attendees. After that were the grand
awards. The energy when a Harker DECA member won was
unprecedented, and all the other students in the room were
shocked by the amount of energy our chapter brought.
To prepare our students for the conference, we held study
sessions every Friday and Saturday in the Innovation Center.
Members could come in and freely work on their projects or take
tests. They were able to do whatever they needed to in order to get
them ready for competition. Additionally, this year, we
introduced the Officer Mentorship Program. This was a program
in which members were paired up with an experienced officer to
help guide them to competitive excellence. It was a huge success,
and we look forward to growing and nurturing the program in
future years.
“The feeling when I heard my name being called up on to the
stage was amazing. All the late nights and hard work were
definitely worth it. Just thinking about being on stage and
receiving the trophy gives me chills, it was such a surreal
experience.”
-Ashna Chandra (10), Harker DECA Director of Membership,
Second in HTOR
“I had a really good time at SVCDC this year. I was a finalist
in both events that I competed in, and an overall finalist in my
written event. I got to meet new people and expand my social
network. This conference was an overall success for Harker DECA,
and I can’t wait for the rest of the competitive season.”
-Shaan Gagneja (10). Finalist
“The support for each competitor was unbelievable. I really
think that Harker DECA impressed schools not only with our
competitive results, but also our bond as a chapter. I am so
excited to see what we can achieve at states!”
-Alexander Mo (11), Harker DECA Director of Written Events,
Second in EGB
“We’ve had the best competitive results this year since the
inception of the business and entrepreneurship department.
thanks to our newly formed Officer Mentorship Program, many of
our members worked one-on-one with experienced officers and
achieved competitive excellence. I’m so proud of everyone, mentors
and mentees alike.”
-Sophia Luo (12), Harker DECA CEO, First in TTDM
About The Harker School DECA
Harker DECA is an International Competitive Business
Organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in
four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality, and
management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction,
applies learning, connects to business, and promotes competition
in order to prepare the next generation to be academically
prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible, and
experienced leaders.
Contact Information
To learn more about this story, please contact:
Vanessa Tyagi, Director of Communications
The Harker School DECA
18VanessaT@students.harker.org
www.harkerdeca.org