Events

As you can see from the list below, there are a variety of business, finance, and entrepreneurship events for interested students.

This is the main competition most students prepare for during the year. DECA offers close to 100 different categories of competitions across the business spectrum. This competition allows our students to compete against students throughout the state. First-year DECA students are able to compete in events against other first-year students from other schools. Many events  consist of a 100 question test and a 10 minute role play based on a particular scenario. There are both individual and team competitions. Some events  require an oral presentation. Others require you to do a written presentation. Some will do both. 

Although the California State Career Development Conference occurs in the spring, we begin training in October and generally hold our own Wilcox event in December. Only the highest performing Wilcox students in their category will advance to the state event. Students who place in the top four of their event at state will advance to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in May. ICDC is often held in Anaheim, California, Orlando, Florida and Nashville, Tennessee. 

Participation in any DECA competitive event requires enrollment in a Wilcox Business class or completion of the Wilcox Business Pathway.

The stock market game is a competition where you create and build a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. You have $100,000 in virtual money to invest, and profit is determined by real world factors. The top 25 teams in the DECA competition move on to the finals to explain their investing strategy to judges. This competition starts in September and culminates with the International competition (ICDC) in May.

The stock market game is a competition where you create and build a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. You have $100,000 in virtual money to invest, and profit is determined by real world factors. The top 25 teams in the DECA competition move on to the finals to explain their investing strategy to judges. This competition starts in September and culminates with the International competition (ICDC) in May.

This is exactly like the DECA virtual business competition described above. However in this challenge there is only one division for everybody to compete against each other in. That division is “Entrepreneurship”. Students will be placed in a very detailed virtual city where they will have to create businesses and make decisions to see how far they can grow their empire. Students with the most money in one game cycle win. This competition happens in April/May each year.

Personal Finance Workshops with Fifth Graders: (2018-2019):

The DECA organization holds club competitions, where entire club chapters create projects that make an impact on the wider community. For our entry, we decided to teach a fifth-grade class at Laurelwood Elementary School the key points of personal finance. The team designed three lessons revolving around the ideas of saving, financial decision making, and comparison shopping. Another group worked on completing a final “game” to test the students’ knowledge of the concepts taught. 

The project was a success, and the group presented the results at the DECA competition. We placed fourth in the state and qualified for the international competition in Orlando. 

Parade of Champions: (2019-2020):

This parade features our local champions and highlights the culture of Santa Clara. The Wilcox Business Competition supported the Santa Clara Parade of Champions Nonprofit in bringing back this lost tradition. After a 25 year hiatus, the parade was restored in 2019. Wilcox students worked to promote the parade at local events such as the Art and Wine Festival. Students also learned about social media marketing and controlled the organization’s Instagram page in 2020. 

FlexFactor challenges students to work in teams to identify a real-world problem, conceptualize an advanced hardware solution, and build a business model around it. At the end of the program, students pitch their ideas to a professional panel.

Through direct industry engagement with future-focused companies and high-performance workplaces, FlexFactor brings real-world experiences to students, allowing them to see how advanced materials and electronic devices combine to create innovative solutions for a diverse range of problems. In addition, students engage with the education pathways at local colleges and universities that will help them gain the knowledge and skills needed in order to join the workforce of the future.

This competition starts in late August and ends in October unless you qualify for the San Jose/Santa Clara finals in which it would end in December.

This is a competition in which student teams create or envision a product, then generate a business model for starting their own business. Many students will take the ideas they have used for the FlexFactor competition and then further develop them for the Diamond Challenge. We usually start this competition in late October then the students work on their idea and complete a written report that is due in January. If your team’s written report is selected then you move onto the Western Regionals held in February/March. At this point you will make an oral presentation of your proposed business to judges (generally business professionals) that will evaluate the presentations. The winners of the Western Regionals will move on to the International competition held at the University of Delaware. The best teams in the world make their presentations at the University of Delaware, usually in April.

The National Personal Finance Challenge (NPFC) is a nationwide competition that provides high school students the opportunity to build and demonstrate their knowledge of money management. Teams showcase their expertise in the concepts of earning income, buying goods and services, saving, using credit, investing, and protecting.

To qualify for this competition students will create teams of 4 students and all students will take a qualifying personal finance test. The top scoring teams advance to the state finals. For the state event, each team is given a case study. Each team gets approximately 2 hours to make a plan, create a presentation, and then present their recommendations to a group of professional individuals who work in the finance industry. The highest scoring team from California qualifies the national level competition.  This event starts in February. The qualifying test round for California occurs in March. The state finals will happen usually in April. The national championship occurs in June.

This is a new program to our schedule. This is available for individuals or teams of 4 to participate in various levels of competition. The main competition they offer is the “Global Issues Problem Solving” division.

Individually or in teams of four, the student(s) work on five topics during the academic year. Each topic is researched and then introduced by a future scene that focuses the topic through specific and futuristic information. The first two topics and future scenes are intended to give students practice using the Six Step Model and considerable feedback from trained evaluators is provided. The third topic is a competitive booklet with the strongest teams or individuals selected to continue with a fourth topic at the California State Bowl. From there, the top teams/individuals will advance to the International Conference in June, participating on a fifth topic.

More information will be given out as we receive it. This competition starts at the beginning of September and culminates with hopefully the California State Bowl (April) or the International Conference (June)