Project Proposal
Students in the marketing class will be able to enhance their classroom learning by attending various DECA leadership conferences and competitions. While students engage in fundraising activities during the year, additional funds are needed to offset some of the travel, lodging, and registration fees. The grant will ensure that all students, regardless of their families’ incomes, will have access to these opportunities.
Amount Funded
$3,500 per year
From touring the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum on our way to Austin, to learning how to lasso and line dance at a ranch, to competing and networking at the DECA conference, this was a learning experience for everyone, one that wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Foundation.
Ms. Michaela Kavanaugh, CHS DECA Sponsor
Students Impacted
22 students
Commitment to Closing the Opportunity Gap
DECA can be an expensive club; there is a membership fee, multiple registration fees, as well as transportation, lodging and other travel expenses. For financial reasons, many CHS students have never been provided the opportunity to travel outside the state, and sometimes even the city. The grant from the Foundation allows all interested DECA students the opportunity to travel, experience other cities, other cultures, and network with other students and business professionals from outside the Omaha area and the state.
Translation to College and Career Readiness
Traveling on its own has broadened students’ knowledge that will help them navigate through college and into their careers. Students are taught how to pack a suitcase, tie a necktie, iron, clean up a hotel room, among other seemingly simple tasks that adults take for granted. At the DECA events, students are required to dress in formal business attire, arrive to competition events early, shake strangers’ hands, engage in conversation, and present their business proposals in a way that is creative and memorable. Practicing these skills and making the fun memories that come with travel and networking at these competitions underscore why the DECA sponsors feel it is so important to take as many students to these events as possible.
I am so grateful for the CHS Foundation’s contribution to DECA. This competition gave me an opportunity to meet other people with similar interests from all around the world. My communication skills have greatly improved, and I have a broader understanding of marketing skills and strategies we learn about in class.
Estella Pierce, Class of 2025