DECA Collegiate Chapter at Union College

From the Union directory, Sep 7, 2026

DECA is a competition-based business club that competes against other colleges. There are 25 different categories a student can compete in, such as Event Planning, Professional Sales, Advertising Campaign, Starting a Business, and more. Depending on the category, it is either a “Case Study” or a “Prepared Business Presentation.” In a case study, the student is challenged to analyze a real-world situation involving their category (E.g., Hotel and Lodging). The student will have 30 minutes to prepare a response to the case study, then 15 minutes to deliver it to the judge. For a Prepared Business Presentation, a student must prepare and submit a 10-20 page written entry following DECA's guidelines for the category. The written entries are submitted before the competition date. On the day of the competition, the student will present their entry to a judge. In an entrepreneurial category, the presentation would be a pitch deck. DECA is an international organization with competitors worldwide. In collegiate DECA, there is a state competition in early March, and if students move on, there is an international competition in mid-April. This year's international competition is in Louisville, KY, and next year's will be in Anaheim, CA. We intend to go.