Fifteen hundred Louisiana Marketing Education students are asking for your support!  These students are showing their civic consciousness by participating in their own professional organization, DECA.

DECA, a non-profits 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is a high school association of students with career interests in marketing, finance, hospitality, management, and entrepreneurship and a 65-year history of broadening the experiences of students.  DECA activities contribute substantially to the primary purpose of school in developing well-educated citizens who have self-confidence, self-esteem, leadership ability, professional skills, and a focused career direction.  DECA is the one high school program that directly prepares students for careers in your industry.

As a business professional, we know that you are interested in helping young students mature into productive citizens of Louisiana.  We would like to share additional information about DECA and our students with you.  We understand that you are busy and that your time is limited; however, we hope that you will take a few minutes to meet with two or three of our students to learn more about this organization. These students are interested in preparing for their future, and there are ways that you can help.

A brief overview of ways that you and your company can contribute to development of these high school students is shown below.  You will be surprised at their level of commitment, and you will be impressed with the work DECA members do!

Louisiana DECA’s Career Development Conference is an opportunity for DECA members from across the state to meet and compete in individual and team events relating to the career areas of marketing, management, entrepreneurship, finance, travel/tourism, hospitality, technology, and community service.  These competitive events can involve role-playing real-life business situations, problem solving business situations and presenting a team solution, or research projects conducted by teams of students prior to the conference.  All events culminate at the conference with students role-playing or presenting their findings to industry professionals for judging.  The Louisiana DECA Career Development Conference will be held in Baton Rouge on February 26-28, 2012.  Please consider joining our students and serve as a judge in this exciting activity.