By Shrija Krishnan, Staff Reporter
Juniors Jiong Li and Matthew Ma won DECA state leadership positions at the 2024 Pennsylvania State Career Development Conference in February. The conference is the organization’s Pennsylvania-level competition and takes place annually at the Hershey Lodge in February.
DECA is an international organization that aims to prepare high school leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in business, and Conestoga’s chapter is one of the largest clubs at the school with more than 220 members.
In order of rank, the organization delegates state leadership to the president, vice president, executive council and district representative positions. Candidates running for the state roles aim to win the votes of representatives from each Pennsylvania high school chapter at the state competition, but the campaigning process starts long before.
Li, who won a position on the executive council this year, structured his campaign around social media outreach.
“Instead of waiting for people to reach out to me, I reached out to other people. I just tried to find my target market and tried to find the right people to talk to,” Li said. “I didn’t really (expect to win), but as I got closer to the mini award ceremony, I felt a little bit more confident after seeing how I performed compared to the other candidates.”
For Ma, the third time was the charm. After joining DECA his freshman year, he won the vice president position following unsuccessful campaigns for district representative and a role in the Conestoga chapter’s leadership.
“I ran for district representative because I didn’t think I could win (state) executive council because I don’t have experience with Pennsylvania DECA leadership,” Ma said. “I didn’t get ’Stoga representative, so I went for district representative. I didn’t win district rep, so I was like, ‘I might as well try,’ ran for (vice) president, and it worked out.”
Ma’s campaign focused on fostering connections between DECA members at the state conference. Although gaining recognition initially challenged Ma due to his lack of previous leadership experience, he distinguished himself from other candidates by hosting his version of the popular speed dating show, “The Button,” with a DECA-themed spin and by turning the lights off during his campaign speech.
“I hosted ‘The Button’ dating show and morphed it into a connection show about meeting new people and encouraging people to step out of their comfort zone,” Ma said. “For my speech, I actually turned off the lights. It was about how DECA helps you get over that fear of the unknown. Turning off the lights for my speech and ‘The Button’ (were) what set me apart.”
As vice president, Ma hopes to improve the state competition and bring “DECA Glass,” the popular glass trophies awarded to top winners at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC), to the state-level competition.
“Compared to making states, a lot less people make ICDC,” Ma said. “So I think we should make states a little more exciting because that’s where (the) DECA journey ends for a lot of people.”
Li said that members of the Conestoga chapter were very supportive of his campaign. They advocated for his platform and handed out campaign stickers on his behalf. Ma said that he found support from club adviser Jeffrey Conner.
“I’m really glad Mr. Conner has joined DECA this past year. I don’t think I would have been able to do it without him,” Ma said. “I really liked the new structuring, and I think he’s provided us with a better opportunity to go for these positions beyond the DECA chapter here.”
Shrija Krishnan can be reached at [email protected].
