UT Dallas students took multiple top spots in competitive events at the DECA international conference earlier this spring, and the campus career-readiness club, based in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, earned the highest level of recognition for a chapter.
UTD DECA brought home the Executive Level Chapter Passport Award from the April 16-19 event — formally the 55th annual Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference. Among chapter competitors, one student earned a first-place award; two teams took second place, and another student took third place in the competition held in Washington, D.C.
“We just started this DECA chapter in 2014,” says faculty advisor Amy Troutman, a JSOM accounting professor. “Since fall 2014, this chapter has grown from 40 charter members to 137 members.”
Top UT Dallas competitors earned these honors:
First Place
Anuka Dhakal
Event: Corporate Finance
Major and Class: Finance Junior
Second Place
Chandrashu Rao and Harshith Dasara
Event: Corporate Finance
Major and Class: Computer Science Sophomore / Healthcare Management and Biology Freshman
Second Place
Sesha Dasari and Ekin Bukulmez
Event: Business Ethics
Major and Class: Finance Sophomore / Global Business and International Political Economy Sophomore
Third Place
Kelsi Edwards
Event: Corporate Finance
Major and Class: Marketing Freshman
| Event | Competitor/s – Major and Class |
|---|---|
| Human Resource Management | Rebecca Raymond – Business Administration and Accounting Senior |
| Entrepreneurship: Starting a Business | Bilal Ayub – Marketing Junior Jonathan Molinar – Finance Junior Aman Vakharia – Finance Junior |
| Entrepreneurship: Growing a Business | Jasmine Chemplanikal – Supply Chain Management Junior Joanna Cherian – Marketing Sophomore Shawn Steaphen – Information Technology and Systems Sophomore |
| Financial Statement Analysis | Soham Daptardar – Global Business Junior Benjamin Henderson – Economics Junior |
| International Marketing | Sara Irfan – Information Technology and Systems Junior Sravya Boppuri – Accounting Junior |
| Business Research | Nousheen Karimi – Global Business Junior Mounika Mutyala – Supply Chain Management Sophomore Yee Luc – Supply Chain Management Sophomore |
| Advertising Campaign | Thuy-Mi Le – Marketing Junior Frank Moreno – Computer Engineering Junior George Peng – Healthcare Management Junior |
| Financial Statement Analysis | Diana Pinzon – Accounting Junior Austin Lee – Accounting Senior |
UTD DECA victories extended to Individual Passport Awards, which 36 students earned for personal excellence.
“These students were prepared and motivated,” Troutman says. “They showed up ready to compete head-to-head with the best college students out there. I was impressed with the competitors from other universities, but I was more impressed with our students from UT Dallas.”
DECA has 15,000 college student members nationwide and focuses competitions on what are called 21st Century Employability Skills in four broad areas — marketing and communications, hospitality and tourism, business management and administration, and finance and accounting. In total, students may compete in 27 categories. About 1,300 students took part in the international conference.
This past year, JSOM junior Rebecca Raymond served as statewide president for Texas Collegiate DECA. Last year, she led the UT Dallas chapter to its inaugural international competition, where one team took second place, another placed fourth, and 10 students placed in the top 10 of their categories. This year, UT Dallas competitors took four top-three spots and another 19 placed in top 10 positions.
Jindal School Dean Hasan Pirkul’s “financial support made it possible to take many more competitors to the international conference this year than last,” Troutman says. “We are particularly grateful to him for that.”
The 91 students who went to the international competition moved up from the DECA state competitions, held earlier in 2016. In that event, 250 students from eight Texas universities, including The University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas and University of Houston, took part in competitions at the Jindal School.
Overall, 58 of the 91 students placed in their event. “I could not be more proud of the amazing job that our students did,” Troutman says.
“Students who do well in DECA are those who can think through complex problems quickly and distill them into manageable chunks of issues to be resolved,” she says.
