DECA Idea Challenge Global Winners

DECA has been busy! A Harker team was named the middle school global winner in the DECA Idea Challenge 2014! A featured event of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the DECA Idea Challenge 2014 dared elementary through college students to find an innovative, feasible and sustainable new use for newspaper in just eight days.

Teams of three to four students pitched their invention in YouTube videos demonstrating creativity, innovation and critical-thinking skills in repurposing newspaper. They also were judged on their ability to work effectively as a team and to effectively communicate results. Ethan Choi, Ajay Madala and Andrew Chavez, all grade 6, designed a pencil pouch, which they enthusiastically demonstrated in their video

Here is the Harker team’s video. 

Competition was tight, with more than 1,700 entries this year from Canada, South Korea, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. A global win is a huge feather in the cap of Harker’s middle school team!

Finish Line Challenge Finalists

There is even more good news. Harker also has a team in the finals of the DECA 2014-2015 Finish Line Challenge. Glenn Reddy, grade 12, and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, are one of only three teams in the finals of this real-world challenge.

Participants assisted Finish Line, a retail shoe chain, by analyzing the company’s strategies for marketing across mobile technology, the Internet, social media, offline media and in-store experiences.

Participants developed recommendations and created a video to present their findings. Finish Line executives reviewed participants’ videos and named the three finalists. Here is the Harker finalist entry.

Reddy and Drazovich will travel to Finish Line’s corporate headquarters in Indianapolis in late February or early March, where they will present their research and recommendations for improving current strategies to Finish Line executives.

The winning team will be awarded an all expense-paid trip to DECA’s International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Fla., in April.

“We are excited for Glenn and Logan to be traveling in the coming weeks to present their research to the Finish Line executive management team,” said Juston Glass, director of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program.

Go Harker DECA Eagles!

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.