It’s that time of year again, when DECA starts their competition season. The program is sending one hundred and eight students to State, which is February twenty-eighth through March second at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue.
This year, what’s different, however, is the amount of first-year students going to State. There are twenty-three DECA one students going to state automatically, a jump from last year’s eight.
“It’s a huge honor, and I didn’t expect to win this year,” First-year DECA student Hallie Chen said. “I do think that I had an advantage over the other first years because of my age, but it was nonetheless surprising.”
In addition to that, there are also four students going for DECA Principles, which was the only way freshman had gone to state at Liberty in the past.
“Out of the first year students in DECA who didn’t make it to state, a number are chosen to compete against other first-year students, with a chance to go to Nationals in Principles. Instead of the regular events, there are only four categories to compete in,” freshman Chelsea Hu said.
Because Principles is a ’second chance’ for first-year students, they have to sign-up in class to be considered for it. The officer team chooses the students with the best overall scores on their tests and mock competitions to compete.
“The freshmen did extremely well and many qualified for state. It’s great knowing that there’s a motivated group of kids that will add to the success of the program for the coming years,” senior Maya Sahawneh said.

In addition to the large freshman class, upperclassmen continued to perform well in events. Sahawneh won the Marketing Communications event, and seniors Kieran Selby and Patrick Jarvis won their event, Marketing Management Team Decision Making, as well.
“I did not expect to win at all,” Sahawneh said. “I was confident that I would qualify, but I was definitely not expecting to win. I was definitely shocked, but am happy my years in the program finally paid off.”