By: Tom Lindberg, President DECA

What is DECA? If you are a student here at UMass Dartmouth, you can benefit from DECA. DECA is a professional development club that meets on Tuesdays in CCB 149 from 5-6pm. The goal of the club is to help members become career ready and to give students more exposure to a professional setting outside of what you learn in class. This club is not only for business students, we currently have a few students from outside the business school who are very active members and they add a new perspective to competitive events. We hold workshops for LinkedIn, resume building, interview tips, and have guest speakers from the community during our weekly meetings. DECA also has a competitive portion to it, we compete with other colleges and universities from the area in case study competitions. Those competitions serve as practice for a state qualifier competition which, if you qualify, gives you the opportunity to compete in the International Conference in the spring. This year’s conference is in Atlanta, Georgia. In years past our chapter has been to Washington D.C., Orlando, Florida, and Anaheim, California.

DECA at UMass Dartmouth has been competing at a high level for many years. We are dedicated to helping our members succeed by providing practice case study competitions during our meetings as well as providing constructive and productive meetings for all members. DECA’s website says, “With a nearly 75-year history, DECA has impacted the lives of more than ten million students, educators, school administrators and business professionals since it was founded in 1946”. Here at UMass Dartmouth, DECA has been impacting the lives of students on and off campus through community service events and our weekly meetings. We are always looking for more students to join, so feel free to stop by CCB 148 from 5-6pm on Tuesdays.