San Jose, California – From Friday, August 23rd, 2024, to Saturday, August 24th, 2024, the Class of 2028 participated in Harker DECA’s 11th annual DECA Launch. Over 100 students took part in the event— the highest attendance rate in the history of Harker DECA Launch. Activities were centered around introducing the 9th graders to Business & Entrepreneurship and the overall DECA experience. By hosting mock competitions, alumni speakers, skills workshops, and innovation challenges, participants were able to receive hands-on experience and an introduction to the professional world. 

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"DECA Launch is a cornerstone of our chapter’s yearly activities, crucial for nurturing the next generation of Harker DECA members. Launch is their first encounter with DECA and this year, with the highest attendance ever, it was especially exciting to see so many new students thrive and grow through this special annual event." said Sanaa Bhorkar (12), Chief Executive Officer.

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Friday afternoon, after school, attendees signed in outside of Nichols Atrium, where they received nametags, custom shirts, and merchandise. Once everyone was seated for the Opening Ceremony, Sanaa Bhorkar (12), Chief Executive Officer, and Maya Affaki (12), Executive Vice President, kicked off the event and started by introducing alumnus, Alexis Nishimura ‘23, who shared her experiences with DECA and B&E. Through her speech, attendees gained further insight about the impact of DECA on her life beyond high school. 

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After the Opening Ceremony concluded, students gathered in their assigned launch groups to compete in a scavenger hunt with clues leading them all around campus. Once they navigated the location, each group would perform various tasks from solving riddles to even pouring water on an officer. 

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After returning from the scavenger hunt, VP of Competitions, Amishi Gupta (11), and DECA’s chapter advisor, Mr. Glass introduced DECA and Harker’s B&E programs, giving in-depth details about conferences, competitions, and entrepreneurship opportunities. 

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Following the presentations, the Director of Competitions, Eva Liu (10), presented the main event of launch, the Innovation Challenge– a project where students design a product and pitch their business plan. For the remainder of the day, groups brainstormed on possible ideas with their mentors and began their presentations. The day ended with dinner catered by Harker. 

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“I really liked the Innovation Challenge because it allowed us to be as creative as we wanted to be and modeled how to structure a business. It really felt like a good introduction to understanding how DECA is going to look like this year,” said Avi Gupta (9). 

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Saturday morning started bright and early with participants arriving outside Nichols Atrium at 8:30 AM. Similar to the previous day, students enjoyed each others’ company while eating breakfast from Noah’s Bagels, many trying to figure out other groups’ ideas for the innovation challenge. Shortly after registration, everyone was led into the auditorium where they listened to Sriteja Kataru (12) talk about B&E’s incubator program – a class providing students with resources to bring their very own products to life. 

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Sriteja then handed it off to Harker DECA’s competitions team who gave a brief overview about competing at an actual conference. The presentation included information about different written events led by Eva Liu (10), Director of Writtens, a Kahoot on mock test questions led by Abby-Rose Sachse (10), Director of Testing, and a demonstration of a live roleplay performed by Nathaniel Edicula (10), Director of Roleplays. 

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After a morning of information and lectures, students enjoyed their lunch while working on their presentations. Following lunch, everyone reconvened in the auditorium to listen to a mentor panel of experienced competitors— Emily Mitnick (12), Shiven Balaji (12), Robinson Xiang (11), Aanya Mukherjee (10), Chelsea Xie (10).

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Next the Harker DECA mentors arrived to judge the roleplay competition. In the meantime while students waited for their session to start, they had free time to work on their presentations. Once finished, everyone gathered back into the auditorium, this time for the alumni panel featuring: Elvis Han (22), Grace Hoang (23), Shreya Merchia (24), and Claire Luo (24).

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“I really like how the roleplay put me in a real-life situation where I had to rely on my critical thinking skills and ability to think on the spot. Because I didn’t have a script or anything, I really had to go with what I was thinking in the moment,” said Jillian Chen (9)

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During the panel, parents started to arrive to watch the Innovation Challenge. Everyone split into two groups— one presenting in Nichols Auditorium, others in the Innovation Center. Dinner was served to the students following all presentations while judges calculated both roleplays and Innovation Challenge scores. 

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Winners are as follows:

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Roleplay Tournament:

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1st Place: Pedro Castro III, Dennis Bi 

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2nd Place: Sophie Han, Arushi Mallick 

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3rd Place: Aden Liu, Ossi Carrico 

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Innovation Challenge:

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Best Overall: Rishik Sehgal, Jonathan Sun, Dennis Bi, Shiori Lin, Smera Savadi, Jillian Chen, Ishaan Dhillon-Patel, Pedro Castro III 

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Honorable Mention: Neev Grover, Aria Chadha, Sophie Han, Grace Wu, Maithili Gupta, Ameya Choudary, Adithya Sathyanarayanan, Pax Suen 

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Best Presentation: Eden Ahluwalia, Lily Ahluwalia, Amber Wee, Teddy Arnaudov, Rocky Jia, Zoya Khera, Sofe jalil, Liana Barooah

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Most Innovative: Jeffrey Wang, Riki Kawano, Avi Gupta, Nathan Mao, Michael Jin, Adrian Jia

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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.

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Contact Information

To learn more about this story, please contact:

Kai Nishimura, Director of Communications

27kain@students.harker.org

deca.harker.org

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