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DECA Mock Role Play Night

Kendall Jason

jasonk21@student.mursd.org

1. Project Summary

During the first business class of my Freshmen year, I had signed up for DECA - a club that would

later change my life in ways I could never imagine. After giving presentations at competitions everywhere

from Boston to Orlando, I knew that I had found my passion and wanted to do everything I could to

further my involvement within this organization. As a current Junior and Vice President of Nipmuc

DECA, I have taken on the large role of preparing younger students for their competitions in hopes that

they will find the same passion that I did just two years ago. These goals allowed me to immediately

uncover what I wanted to connect my leadership project too - preparing future DECA leaders to discover

their passions, develop confidence in their presentations, and succeed in their competitions. Over the past

few months, I have worked diligently planning a “DECA Role Play Night” to help prepare all Nipmuc

Freshmen and Sophomores who are competing at their first competition this January - Districts. The event

took place on Monday, January 6th, 2020, from 6:00-8:30 pm. This is essentially a “Mock District

Competition”, and my goal was to make this event as close to the actual District Competition as possible.

At the real District Competition, students are given a “Role Play” case study based on their category,

where they take on a role at a company and are provided with a problem to solve. They have a brief time

to prepare their ideas and then present their solution to a judge who is given the role of the boss or the

owner of the company. In real life, these judges are typically business professionals employed in a field

relating to the student’s category. Some of the categories that we currently have students competing in are

finance, hospitality and tourism, retail marketing, human resources, and entrepreneurship. Students are

scored on the creativity of their ideas, their understanding of business concepts, as well as how they

communicate their ideas to the judge. My goal with my own Role Play Night was to make it nearly
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identical to this setting to give students exposure to how the actual competition will run and make them

feel more comfortable with the format. We have held this event at Nipmuc in years past, and my goal was

to take what I have learned from participating in this Mock Competition myself to make improvements

and provide younger students with all of the resources that they need to succeed. Throughout the process, I

successfully delegated and managed all of the jobs to the individuals who volunteered their time to help

me with my goal of preparing Nipmuc DECA students for their upcoming competition. These roles

included bringing awareness to the event through social media, purchasing the needed supplies for the

event, downloading the necessary number of copies of student Role Play Case Study scenarios, printing all

necessary materials for both judges and students, organizing all materials into folders for both judges and

students, setting up classrooms for judges to watch presentations in, working the check-in table for judges

and students, scheduling and timing student preparation and presentation times, and maintaining constant

contact with the judges to keep them updated prior to the event using email. As the leader of this DECA

Role Play Night, I introduced and discussed the event with our Nipmuc DECA Executive Board at

multiple before-school meetings and many members assisted me throughout the process. When the night

came, I was happy to see so many DECA students who were eager to take the time to gain the extra

practice and skills that they needed to do their best at their District Competition. In total, I had twenty-four

freshmen and sophomores attend the event, and eleven members from the Nipmuc DECA Executive

Board volunteered their time on the night of the event. I also had eight parent judges and twelve Nipmuc

alumni judges provide students with scores and valuable feedback. One of our Nipmuc DECA advisors,

Mr. Cody, also volunteered his time to supervise and assist at this Mock Role Play Night.

2. Planning Phase

Team Members: Abby Benoit

My first step in this project was to gain approval from my DECA Advisors, as well as from

Administration and some members of the Nipmuc Faculty to host this event at Nipmuc. Both of the
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Nipmuc DECA Advisors - Mr. Cody and Mr. Perras - were extremely supportive of my project and were

very helpful in providing all of the information that I needed to plan this event. I immediately contacted

Mr. Clements and Mrs. Moran to gain their approval as well, as this event would take place at night on

school property. They were just as supportive, and I was so excited to have as much encouragement as I

did with my goals. I am still appreciative of all of the help that I received throughout the planning process,

and could not have done my project without everybody involved. In November, I met with Mr. Cody and

Ms. Buzzell to reserve a date for the event. I chose Monday, January 6th, 2020, from 6-8:30 pm, as the

official date and time for my event. This was my immediate first choice because it would give the students

an extra last chance to practice their presentations after taking a week off during winter break, as the

official DECA District Competition was on Friday, January 10th, 2020. I wanted to also give students the

three days in between the mock competition and the real competition to review their scores, study their

feedback, and practice their presentations after making improvements based on the suggestions that they

received on Role Play Night. During this meeting, I also booked the Media Center as well as the Cafeteria

for my date, with enough time scheduled to allow for set-up and clean-up.

I also contacted some members of the Nipmuc faculty who have rooms on the first and second

floors to ask permission to use their classrooms for students to give their presentations during Role Play

Night. My plan was to have the cafeteria act as the waiting area for all of the teams, with the Media Center

utilized as the prep room and classrooms as presentation rooms. I was excited to hear that members of the

Nipmuc Faculty were more than happy to allow their rooms to be used by students, and after I received all

approvals, I began solidifying my plans and delegating the many roles to the individuals who offered to

help me host this event.

The next step in planning my DECA Role Play Night was to find judges to watch student

presentations and provide them with scores and feedback. I spent weeks contacting parents of current

Nipmuc DECA students, as well as successful Nipmuc DECA alumni, to ask if they might be willing to
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volunteer their time as a judge on this night. This was one of the most difficult portions of the planning

process, as I struggled to get responses from many of the individuals who I reached out to. It was also

difficult for me to gather all of the correct contact information for the parents and alumni that I wished to

contact. To make improvements to this part of my project and receive more responses from potential

judges, I sent various reminders out to all of these individuals. I asked for the most convenient method of

communication from these individuals, and almost all of the potential judges provided their email

addresses so I could send them the necessary information. Email proved to be a much more successful and

organized form of communication, and I got many more responses through this method than from text

messages. I was happy to get responses from eight parents and twelve Nipmuc DECA alumni who were all

happy to volunteer for my event. The majority of individuals that I contacted work in a business field or

major in a field related to the categories that our students are competing in, which is nearly identical to

how the judges are selected for the real District Competition. I had asked every judge to provide me with

an idea of their job, interests, or college major so that I could pair them with the appropriate category. One

of the problems that came with this step in the planning process was that some of the judges unfortunately

had to cancel as the event got closer due to work-related conflicts. I was able to improve this portion of my

project by sending out reminder emails to all of the remaining judges as the event got closer, as well as

additional information about the event that they could read prior to judging presentations so they would

feel prepared. Last year, I heard from judges who attended this event that they were not completely clear

regarding their role as a judge and how the DECA competitions are organized. This was one of the largest

improvements that I wished to make with my event, as I wanted to provide students with well-informed

judges who completely understood the DECA judging requirements. I took on the leadership role of

consistently making resources for the judges to learn from so they would be able to provide our students

with the most useful feedback and feel comfortable with their job throughout the entirety of the event. I

did not receive any additional cancellations after I sent out the reminder emails and helpful instructions to
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all of the volunteer judges, and many of the judges thanked me for the extra materials that they would be

able to review independently prior to the event. This also gave them the chance to prepare any questions

that they might have had for me before judging the presentations to ensure that they fully understood their

role.

The next step that I took was reaching out to all of the Nipmuc Students who are competing at

Districts to notify them of this event. A conflict of opinion occurred during this portion of the planning

process regarding the best method to contact the students. I believed that the most successful way to

contact all of our DECA students would be through email, while my project teammates all believed that a

Google Classroom Post would be much more beneficial. After discussing the benefits to both methods, we

decided to compromise and send an email to all of the students in addition to a Google Classroom post to

all of the business classes. Almost all of the students who would be interested in attending are currently

taking either Intro to Business or Marketing 1, and I am grateful that both Mr. Cody and Mr. Perras were

happy to post multiple announcements on Google Classroom about my project which helped bring a

greater degree of awareness to DECA Role Play Night. I followed up with all of the students that same

night and sent them all an email with the specific details about the event. This was a successful resolution

to this conflict, as I had received very few sign-ups through the email that I had sent to students, and

instead many came directly from the Google Classroom posts. I am grateful that the individuals who have

helped me plan my project recommended this successful method of communication to students.

I had delegated many different roles during the planning phase of my leadership project. Abby

Benoit held a very large role in my project, as she was responsible for posting on the Nipmuc DECA

social media accounts multiple times to bring awareness to the event prior to the date, as well as releasing

information about sign-ups for the event to students. Abby Benoit was also assigned the role of finding all

of the twenty-three Role Play Case Study Scenarios for all of the categories that we had students

competing in. Connor Jason was responsible for going to the store to assist in purchasing all of the
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necessary supplies for the event. Folders and labels were necessary for the event to remain organized

throughout the planning and preparation of the project. Connor Jason was also assigned the role of

organizing all of the printed materials into various folders for judges and students, including instructions,

information, schedules, and their Role Play Case Study Scenarios. Jordan Lindquist was assigned the job

of scheduling the extra second opportunity for students to give their presentations to judges for additional

practice after their initial presentation at the event. Jordan was also responsible for judging a team of

students that could not attend the event at the starting time of 6:00 pm, but still wanted the practice so they

requested if they could arrive at a later time. Finally, I delegated different roles to the eleven members of

the Nipmuc DECA Executive Board who volunteered their time to attend Role Play Night. The majority

of these individuals were responsible for keeping track of times for the teams and communicating with the

students and judges participating.

3. Preparation Phase

Team Members: Abby Benoit, Connor Jason

One of the most helpful methods to reach out to DECA students was through social media,

specifically the Nipmuc DECA Instagram account. Abby Benoit is currently the Nipmuc DECA Social

Media Coordinator, so I immediately reached out to her to see if she would be able to promote DECA

Role Play Night on this popular account. She posted announcements about the emails that I sent out to the

students, as well as reminders prior to the event. Abby was very helpful in generating the most awareness

for my event and keeping all students updated with any new information. I maintained continuous contact

with her to ensure that the posts were seen by the students, as well as when the posts were going to be

scheduled to be sent out. I requested that she follows a timeline for these posts, and her three Instagram

posts were uploaded on December 2nd, December 19th, and January 5th. The first post notified students to

please check their emails for information about DECA Role Play Night, the second post requested that

they please check their email and Google Classroom to sign up for the event if they were interested, and
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the third post was a reminder of the event time the day before it was hosted. These were effectively spaced

throughout December and January to bring the most awareness to the event on a popular social media

platform.

About two weeks before the event, I sent out a Google Form to all of the DECA students invited to

gather data about which teams are planning on coming to the event. I took these responses that I received

and used them to create the judge’s schedules and student presentation times. I ran into a problem with this

Google Form, as students were submitting the form weeks after it was initially sent out which required me

to change my schedules, judges, and categories at the last minute after the majority of the preparation had

already been finished. This prompted me to create a firm deadline for the Google Form to ensure that all of

the students would be signed up with enough time to organize all of the materials for students and judges

with the fewest last-minute changes as possible. This deadline was communicated through email to all of

the students.

One of the largest responsibilities that I had when planning this event was choosing the DECA

Role Play scenarios that each team would be given to prepare their solution for. There are hundreds of

samples online, and I took days sorting through each and every one to find the best matches for every

category. Abby Benoit also took on the responsibilities that came with this role and spent five hours trying

to sort through all of the sample Role Plays. She found twenty-three different Role Play cases to give to

the teams that we had competing in twenty-three categories. She even went above and beyond and found

cases that matched up with the specific “Instructional Area” that the students would be given at the real

District Competition - basically a general topic that the Role Play will be connected to. She also compared

all of the Role Plays that she saved to the ones that the students had practiced in class to ensure that the

students would have the most realistic experience as possible. To ensure that this job was successful, I

continued to check in on her progress and ensure that all of the materials would be correctly downloaded

prior to the event. I also reviewed all of the Role Play Case Study scenarios that Abby found to ensure that
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they were correct and would provide students with the best practice as possible. I did not have any

problems with the materials that Abby downloaded for the students and judges to use, and her assistance

with this portion of the preparation process was extremely successful.

I later took all of the Role Play cases that Abby Benoit found and created PDF documents for each

category with the correct number of cases, instructions, rubrics, and judges information based on the

number of teams per category. This would allow the final printing and organization process to run much

more efficiently. In the final week leading up to the event, I made sure that all of the schedules, materials,

and instructions were organized and ready. I sent a final email to all of my confirmed volunteer judges

with a two-page document of judge’s instructions that I wrote, as well as a sample Role Play that I

annotated to highlight important parts of the student presentations.

Connor Jason also played a large role in assisting with organizing materials for students and judges

and went shopping at Staples to pick out the folders and printed labels that the event required. I made sure

that the correct materials were purchased and at the correct quantities so that there would be no

unnecessary problems during the execution of the event. He also assisted in printing out all of the Role

Plays, judge’s instructions, schedules, and DECA rubrics. With Connor’s help, we put the correct number

of all of these documents into labeled folders for every team and every judge to take upon checking in at

the event. On the weekend before DECA Role Play Night, I went to the grocery store to purchase

refreshments for the judges to thank them for volunteering their time to help my project and the students.

4. Action Phase

Team Members: Jordan Lindquist, Connor Jason, Abby Benoit, Mr. Cody, and eleven members from the

Nipmuc DECA Executive Board

When the night finally came, I was grateful to have so much help from volunteers from the

Nipmuc DECA E-Board. The Cafeteria, Media Center, and all of the classrooms were set up with success

with all of the necessary materials in each location with enough time before the students and judges
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arrived. I had eleven members volunteer to help keep track of time for the teams, and they were extremely

helpful in guiding students and judges through the event. I had ensured that every E-Board member knew

their role and was comfortable with the job that they had to complete. I met with all eleven members prior

to the 6:00 pm start time of the event to go over their responsibilities and to answer any questions that they

might have had. I also gave each E-Board member a folder with a list of the students that they would be

keeping track of time for. Connor Jason was located in the lobby near the front door of the school to guide

parents and alumni to the Cafeteria where they would receive their materials. Abby Benoit and Jordan

Lindquist were located at the check-in table to provide judges and students with these schedules and

folders at the beginning of DECA Role Play Night. Jordan Lindquist played a key role in the execution of

my project by taking on a leadership role in organizing a second presentation option for students who

wanted the extra practice. She compared all of the judge’s schedules to find open time slots for these

students, and successfully gave them all second chances to practice if they preferred. Jordan also

volunteered to judge a team of two students who had a prior commitment towards the beginning of this

event but still wanted the practice, so she volunteered to stay late to provide them with feedback on their

presentations once they arrived. One of our DECA advisors, Mr. Cody, volunteered his time to stay after

school and through the event to assist with all of the last-minute preparations that we needed during the

set-up and clean-up process. He also answered any questions that the students had about their

presentations and ensured that the event ran smoothly. Mr. Cody was very helpful and supportive

throughout the entire event and was always willing to help solve any of the problems that we encountered

throughout the night. One of the problems that we encountered at the event was when some of the students

who signed up did not attend, and Mr. Cody helped solve this by moving some of the students who did

attend to different judges to ensure that all of the judges had an equal number of presentations to watch.

This problem was solved very quickly and easily because of all of his help, and the necessary schedule

changes were made in a very organized way to avoid confusion for both the judges and students. Overall,
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the execution of my project was very successful and my team and I encountered minimal problems

because of the extreme dedication that everyone involved contributed to the planning and preparation

processes.

5. Conclusion

Overall, I am extremely happy with the outcome of my leadership project and am grateful to have

been provided with the opportunity to help so many students prepare before Districts. Through this event, I

have also worked towards my goal of having our Nipmuc DECA Chapter connect with more members

from our community, which this event successfully demonstrated. I have also made more individuals in

our community aware of DECA and the success that our students have at competitions by teaching all of

our volunteer judges how the competitions work. I received great feedback from the students who

participated in the event, and they mentioned how through this event they felt much more prepared for

their competition. Freshman Rebecca Tabakin contacted me after the event to say “Thank you for hosting

tonight Kendall! It was really helpful” and Freshman Isabelle Merrill also reached out to say “Thank you

so much for putting this together, it was very beneficial!” which I was very happy to hear. I had also

received a lot of verbal feedback from both students and judges who participated that night with their

gratitude for the opportunity that this event provided. After DECA Role Play Night, I was so proud to hear

that this District Competition marked one of the years with the greatest number of Freshmen and

Sophomores to qualify for the State Competition held in Boston in February of 2020. In total, twenty-two

Freshmen and seventeen Sophomores succeeded in their competitions and placed in the top six in their

categories, earning them a spot to the very competitive State Career Development Conference. The

commitment and dedication of all of these students to their DECA presentations is something that

motivates me every day to continue my leadership role as Vice President of Nipmuc DECA. Since the

completion of Role Play Night, I have continued my involvement with the Freshmen competing at the

State Conference by mentoring multiple teams in the weeks leading up to this competition and providing
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them with continuous guidance through their first year as DECA members. I am so grateful for the

opportunities that I have to support all of our competitors and for all of the connections that I have made

through DECA. Hosting this DECA Role Play Night has further motivated me to continue achieving my

goal of preparing all Nipmuc DECA students for their futures and assisting them in finding their passions

through this organization just as I have. Abby Benoit, Jordan Lindquist, Connor Jason, the Nipmuc DECA

E-Board, and our Nipmuc DECA Advisors, Mr. Cody and Mr. Perras, all held major roles in the

completion of DECA Role Play Night, and I truly appreciate all of the hard work and dedication they have

all put into making the night a success.