Gary He’s (12) mind raced as a beeping timer signaled him to stop talking.
That didn’t go as planned.
The role play section of the competition, where participants undertake an impromptu, shark-tank-esque pitch to convince judges of their marketing skills, was historically their strong suit in the competition.
But we messed up this time.
Sure his partner, Russ Sobti (12), and he had applied the same creativity they always did to win over the judges, but they ran out of time before finishing their pitch. Sobti and he had been international finalists last year, but their simple mistakes this time may have cost them a spot on the podium. All he could do was just wait and see what happened next.
It didn’t help that the awards ceremony was so long after He and Sobti’s competition. Having competed Jan. 8, they sat in agonizing suspense for a grueling day before they got their results.
Their score was split into three sections. The exam portion where they answered various questions on business.
“Initially, I didn’t think we did very well,” He said. “I thought I could have been a lot smoother in my speaking and we tragically ran out of time.”
But what happened next surprised him. He was elated to find out that not only had he secured bronze in the exam and Sobti the gold, but they had also earned silver in the Roleplay section. This meant that they were definitely making it to the podium for their event.
And podium they did, taking the Gold Award home for Entrepreneur Team Decision Making. But they were not the only team that won awards as nearly all of the members who attended the tournament were also honored.
“I think we came back with more awards than we had people,” Sobti said. “We brought like 17 or 18 people up to Anaheim. And we came back with like 22 or 23 awards, which is honestly incredible.”
Once the awards ceremony had finished, 18 Westview members had earned accolades and 16 had podium positions. He described this as a “started from the bottom now we’re here” moment in his DECA career.
“Words can’t really describe the triumphs I felt as we left the hotel,” He said. “I was very happy for the team. I mean, a year ago, DECA was just literally five people. And now we’ve grown in numbers, literally having multiplied our size by eight.”
He joined the club last year. At the time, DECA had a total of two members, so he was offered an executive position on the spot.
“I obviously had no idea what’s going on or what I was doing,” He said. “Regardless, I got the ball rolling for recruitment. I got my current competition partner Russ to join and after that we recruited like crazy. Now we’re at an insane 40 members.”
One of these new members, Kristina Kamani (11), along with her partner Sindhu Narasimha (11), initially had doubts about how they were going to perform at the district competition. Not only was it their first in-person competition, but their first competition in general as well.
Sure the club meetings had helped them prepare for the competition through teaching them the ins and outs of their event, Hospitality, but putting that learning into their performance was going to be difficult.
Kamani did not expect to win big. Although they both had done well in the role play for their event, Kamani said she felt that her charisma towards the judges wouldn’t make up for a poor exam score.
“I found it easier to talk to the judges and make a couple of jokes to get their attention [in the role play section],” Kamani said. “With the judges, you had to come up and just connect with them personally, but the written exam was the part where you actually have to know stuff.”
Despite her doubts, Kamani’s team was still able to secure the Grand Award for her event in hospitality.
“We kind of expected a little reward because we knew we did good on the role play but the Grand Award was totally unexpected,” Kamani said. “We didn’t think we’d get it because there were a lot of people competing and I felt like my test score was going to drag us down a little, but we still ended up getting it, which was amazing.”
Looking forward, He and Sobti are going to use their experience at the tournament to prepare for the state competition next month. Their main focuses are diversifying the events so more students have an opportunity to go international and helping students study more for the exam.
“We’re currently working with the team to figure out who worked well with each other and what people did best,” Sobti said. “Overall it was a great learning experience and super rewarding to see just how well all the Westview students performed.”