By Sam Wantuch, Reporter

Kaneland’s DECA team participated in the leadership conference held on Oct. 7.

DECA is a club that works to increase social awareness, occupational understanding and improve leadership. Within the state, the conference elects and develops leaders to help create an organization that is student friendly and driven.

Kaneland’s team was also scheduled to attend the state executive conference, but senior Liz Kennedy was not able to run for an officer position this year as scheduled. Last year’s state DECA President, Joe Ruppel, ’09, instated the new DECA state officer team. The election process involves several steps.

Students take a test off of six to seven pages of memorized notes, Tammi Conn, adviser to Kaneland’s DECA team, said. They also have a meeting with the Foundations for Market Education, which is much like a job interview.

“I think it went well, even though Liz [Kennedy] couldn’t go,” junior Hayley Guyton, secretary of Kaneland’s DECA, said.

 “[It was] an excellent conference this year. The organization that put on the lead portion of the conference did a nice job of incorporating a lot of activity,” Conn said.

In preparation for events such as the state executive conference, Conn has the club taking practice tests, learning marketing lessons and acting out role-play. DECA is currently working to increase their membership.

The club is very useful for anyone pursuing a business career and has a fun group of people to work with, sophomore Molly Speckman, vice president of civic consciousness, said.

“[I joined because] I was interested in business, and I thought it would be valuable when it came time for college or to get a job,” Speckman said.