(Pictured l-r: Alexa Blohm, Advisor: Elizabeth Pechaitis, Samantha Gerig, Hailey Perez)
The LISD TECH Center is focused on preparing their students for the workplace and college. Offering several different hands-on learning experiences, it is goal of the LISD TECH Center to give their students the opportunity to succeed in and out of the classroom.
Recently, three Lenawee County high school juniors took first place in the DECA International Career Development competition in Nashville, Tennessee. Nearly 18,000 students from around the world competed and Lenawee County’s team placed in the top 3%, earning them a trophy and scholarships.
The Lenawee County team was compiled of three students, Alexa Blohm and Hailey Perez from Madison High School, and Samantha Gerig from Hudson High School. Each of these students are members of the LISD TECH Center’s entrepreneurship and marketing class, taught by Elizabeth Pechaitis.
The mission of DECA is to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in high schools and colleges around the globe for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. The LISD TECH Center students competed in the School-based Enterprise Food Service Operations category. The School-based Enterprise (SBE) program is designed to connect classroom curriculum with hands-on learning experiences by working in the SBE learning lab.
In the case of the Lenawee students, they submitted their business and marketing practices of the classroom-run school store, “The Spot.” The Lenawee students presented their financial analysis, operations, marketing-information management, market planning, and more to the DECA judging panel. The SBE competition requires students to give an oral presentation in front of judges focused on one of the 10 business standards featured in the written chapter certification project. Approximately 150 teams competed in the preliminary round of competition, 24 teams were selected to move on and compete in the final round, and of that 24, the LISD TECH Center students took first place.
The LISD TECH Center emphasizes the importance of hands-on learning through their classroom curriculum. “Our Marketing and Entrepreneurship class provided us with public speaking skills, marketing knowledge and real work experience that we were able to successfully apply to our DECA competition,” said Madison High School junior and DECA winner, Alexa Blohm.
The LISD TECH Center is an excellent resource for a variety interests and prepares students to go directly into the workforce or get career-specific experience in preparation for college. The entrepreneurship and marketing class is just one example of a hands-on learning environment. To learn more, visit http://www.lisd.us/tech-center/tech-center-about-us/.