Thursday, March 16th through Saturday, March 18th, Blackman High School’s DECA club went to the State Career Development Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee to compete with other districts.

DECA is an abbreviation for Distributive Education Clubs of America. At this convention, officers were elected while other competitors who placed high in their respective events will go to ICDC in Anaheim, California. ICDC is the International Career Development Conference, which is where some of Blackman’s members will be headed.

Thursday was a full day, ranging from the opening session to DECA night at the Tennessee Aquarium. At the pinning ceremony, the state officers were introduced and then the competitors for the professional selling and written events were released. Later that night, a party ensued at the aquarium.

On Friday, the role play competitions took place. During the night, there was a mini-award session and then a formal dance.

“I engaged in the community service project, and I scored in the top 8 out of thirteen competitors. I’m glad I did DECA this year; I got to meet new people from all over the state,” said Bibiana Perdomo, senior.

Saturday was a short but exciting day for the DECA members. All of their hard work was recognized at the Grand Awards Session. Blackman DECA members Taylin Spurlock, senior, Colton Tincher, senior, Svetlana Baranova, sophomore, Kendall Clark, junior, Erika Porter, sophomore, and Mhorgan Stephens, senior, qualified to compete at ICDC at the end of April.

Besides qualifying for ICDC, Spurlock also was nominated as the Middle Tennessee Vice President for next year. Her duties will include traveling all over the country, participating in workshops, and leading other DECA chapters.

“I’m looking forward to having a greater impact on Tennessee DECA as a whole. I’ll be able to impact more people and the traveling will also be great,” said Taylin Spurlock, senior.