DECA is for the Privileged
By Lea Chang
As someone who’s been a DECA member since freshman year, I’ve noticed that only privileged people can participate in official DECA events like SCDC and ICDC. And by privileged, I mean those who are financially privileged.
DECA is a club/organization for people interested in business, and anyone who is in high school or college can join at their respective institutions. The only requirement is that you have to pay the member fee ($35 at Westview, but it can vary from school to school) and be enrolled in a business class for the school year, like personal finance or business law, to join. It looks great on college applications, and I enjoy being a member and competing. You must pay more money to compete, but you’re not forced to compete to retain your membership.
The fee to attend SCDC, the state conference, is close to $200. However, this only covers registration and lodging, so money for food, water, and other things from around the area is unaccounted for, and therefore unavailable for those who need financial aid. For me, I end up having to bring an extra $100 just to buy meals. If you think that’s expensive, wait until you see how much ICDC costs.
The top 15 placers in any SCDC event qualify for ICDC, the international conference. LIke SCDC, there is a fee: the price can range anywhere from $1000 to nearly $2000, depending on where the conference is being held, which covers the flight, hotel, and registration fee. Again, that number doesn’t cover necessities like food and water.
However, to participate in both SCDC and ICDC, you must dress in professional attire. That means spending money on a blazer, dress shirts, dress pants/skirt, and dress shoes. Professional attire costs a hefty sum and makes it even harder for people who may want to compete but don’t have the money to spare to participate in the conferences.
DECA requires you to have money for everything you do in the organization. This same problem shows up in a lot of other extracurriculars as well. Sports, band, choir, even speech and debate all require money. The further you want to go, the more money you need to give, meaning that success in an extracurricular is directly tied to your socioeconomic standing. In a college system where extracurriculars are often equally, if not more, important than grades and essays, this correlation puts students in difficult financial situations at an even worse position than what simply meets the eye. While some progress has been made with the dropping of fees for school sports, more work needs to be done to make extracurriculars and the college admissions process more equitable.