The Eighth Annual Colorado State University DECA Invitational was held on Oct. 4 and Oct. 15. It was a state wide mock competition where DECA students had the opportunity to practice and receive feedback on new events they had never tried before. There were about 600 students who participated within the two days. All students met at CSU and took a test according to what event they were practicing and then took part in a role-play, which was a mock interview, which was presented to judges who had gathered from around the community. The judges could then give students feedback and tell them how to improve, which was something unique about the event.

Seniors Haley Osborn and Alyx Van Doren planned the event and put at least 50 hours of work into it. Osborn and Van Doren talked to schools and advisors, got sponsorships for the event, talked to alumni, assigned judges to specific role-plays and organized the tests that students took. “We had a couple of challenges that we had to overcome, but it went really smoothly,” said Van Doren. “It’s really cool to see the progression of it through the years,” said Osborn.

“Everything went pretty smooth, they tried to make it as much of a relaxed environment as possible,” said senior Logan Spieler, who won first place in the Business Finance category against eight other students. Students were assigned categories to compete in. “My favorite part of the event was the closing ceremony because I got to see people get really excited,” said Van Doren.