San Jose, California – From Friday, August 29th, 2025, to Saturday, August 30th, 2025, over 80 students from the Class of 2029 participated in Harker’s 12th annual DECA Launch. Through DECA Launch, freshmen are introduced to the world of Business & Entrepreneurship and gain exposure to the tight-knit community DECA fosters.  

"DECA Launch is important because it gives a good foundation for first year members to get a good idea of what DECA is, how they can get involved, what the community is like, and the chance to meet the officers. I think it’s a good starting out point and it really gets [students] excited about what DECA is." said Amishi Gupta (12), Chief Executive Officer.

On Friday afternoon, students lined up outside of Nichols auditorium to receive their name tags. Once everyone was seated for the Opening Ceremony, Amishi Gupta (12) and Tanvi Sivakumar (12), Co-CEOs, launched the event by introducing the B&E program. After, Ronica Khattri (11), co-president of Harker’s Investing Club, spoke on her experience with DECA, and the discussion opened up to the audience for questions. 

After the Opening Ceremony, students participated in a campus-wide scavenger hunt. Students met with their assigned launch groups and were given clues leading them throughout campus. Each location was met with a different officer that provided the groups with unique tasks and riddles to solve. Some include choreographing a dance or even pouring water on an officer. 

After the scavenger hunt, students gathered in the auditorium to listen to Amishi Gupta (12) and Tanvi Sivakumar (12), Co-CEOs, introduce the DECA program, giving details about conferences, study sessions, and the overall commitment to DECA. 

Following the introduction of DECA, Abby Sachse (11), VP of Competitions, went over competitive events such as testing, roleplays, and writtens, along with the different DECA clusters. Abby discussed the mentorship program offered by Harker DECA and reflected on her experience with her former mentor, alumni Maya Affaki (25), describing how they developed a close relationship. Shortly afterward, Juston Glass, Harker DECA’s advisor, spoke about the various B&E programs, including Harker TEDx, Oeconomia, Investing Club, Incubator, and Career Connect. The day concluded with a dinner provided by Harker. 

“‍I enjoyed the innovation challenge - especially figuring out what product we were going to present and listening to other people’s idea[s],” said Danya Arun (9). 

Saturday kicked off at 8:30 A.M for registration outside of the Nichols Auditorium with fresh breakfast from Noah’s Bagels. Celina Xu (12) talked about her experience in the Incubator course Harker provides, explaining that her original idea was to develop a long-lasting eyeliner. Following that, students listened to Ronica Khattri (11) and Nicole Dean (11), co-presidents of the Investing Club, talk about how the Investing Club assists in learning financial skills early, and the opportunities the club provides.

Ronica and Nicole then handed it off to Abby Wang, Harker DECA’s Director of Testing, to talk about the competitive aspects of DECA, going in depth on role plays and writtens. Students participated in a Kahoot quiz featuring sample DECA exam questions. 

‍"I enjoyed the Innovation Challenge the most because it was fun to work as a team to come up with an idea," said Navya Maddapudi (9). 

‍After a morning filled with lectures and information sessions, students enjoyed Chipotle and ice cream as they continued preparing their presentations. Following lunch, students gathered in the auditorium to split into their roleplay groups. 

Harker DECA mentors came in to evaluate the roleplay competition. While waiting for their turn, students used the break to refine their presentations in the Nichols Auditorium. Afterward, students reconvened in the auditorium for the alumni panel, featuring Claire Miao (24), Edward Huang (24), Andrew Au (24), Cynthia Wang (24), Maya Affaki (25). 

‍”Especially like with the people I was judging, they were very eager to hear their feedback and very eager to know how to do better, especially cause this was their first role play. I found it very positive because I think the incoming first year’s for DECA are very eager to learn and grow,” said mentor and role play judge, Liana Barooah (10).

As the panel took place, parents began arriving to observe the Innovation Challenge. Students then began presenting, and shortly after, dinner was served with desserts while judges calculated both roleplays and Innovation Challenge scores. 

Winners are as follows:

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Roleplay Tournament:

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1st Place: Rohan Ahuja, Jacob Cao

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2nd Place: Leo Hoffmann, Ranvir Tyagi

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3rd Place: Jacob Dorfman, Ushinish Chatterjee 

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Innovation Challenge:

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Best Overall: Gauri Badgujar, Navya Maddipudi, Rhea Sharma, Aanya Solanki, Ravi Saxena, Aaron Lau, Arul Logesh, Joshua Woon, Ranvir Tyagi

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Honorable Mention: Keji Yuan, Andy He, Patrick Jiang, Annika Pendse, Mahika Vinnakota, Isabella Wang, Kyle Li, Addie Firman, Leo Hoffmann 

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Best Presentation: Sarah Thiru, Srikrishna Kataru, Aditya Gupta, Reyansh Gupta, Rohan Ahuja, Siddharth Hosakere, Iris Wang, Rohan Kaushal, Avni Sharma

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Most Innovative: Danya Arun, Anusha Kotalwar, Sabrina Shun, Allison Ishisaka, Shivam Sharma, Jun Wee, Ethan Weyn, Aiden Lin, Ethan Chen

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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:

Sofe Jalil, Director of Communications

28sofej@students.harker.org

deca.harker.org

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