The Distribution Education Clubs of America, or DECA, is a program high schools across America- including here at Arvada West High School, participate in. It’s dedicated to teaching students business management skills such as organization of business and money management. Relative to the past few months, the DECA club here at A-West has been working on a long-going project that may have the ability to change the world of business for DECA students, whilst also providing Arvada West students and community members with basic necessities.
The club is in the process of putting their business dreams of starting up a convenience-type store into action. The one-stop shop will be based in the store corner and concessions stand of the school just west of the auditorium (room E112), and is expected to at long last open up their doors to A-West students and community in mid-January.
A-West business management teacher and DECA manager, Anthony Milano, describes the business aspects that will come out of the experience. “I think it’ll benefit our community,” states Milano. “We’ll have some food for sale, but also, we’ll have places that students can go to to grab necessary items like pens or pencils, as well as A-West gear from the PTSA [the Parent Teacher Student Association] – we’re also gonna invite clubs. I think it’s once we put into play the different clubs and their fundraisers, we’ll turn it into, hopefully, a community hub.”
Milano explains in detail what his and his students’ proposals for the business are, “we’re planning for it to turn into a DECA project, and also… maybe a class on running and managing a store. We also want it to be… a place where students can go and be like, ‘Oh shoot, I forgot to buy this – I’ll just go grab it,’ so really… a resource for students, but also, a big learning experience for the business program.”
What he hopes is to use it as an opportunity to teach his students valuable lessons about business, but additionally establishes the importance of providing a resource to provide students with necessary items and equipment for school. This said, he hopes to promote this store as both a beneficial experience for business students and a resource for student life.
This will become a one-stop shop supplying student resources, food, wood shop gear, PTSA merchandise, and other school necessities that they think of along the way. According to the initial proposal they have established, DECA students will work standard work shifts at the shop for about three hours each day, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for the reward of a certain amount of money relative to each product that is sold. The proposal then establishes a cost analysis and a prop analysis, but there is still more information to be determined, such as work credit opportunities. Further along the road, the club hopes to use their revenue to invest in fundraisers.
Milano and his students have been in forethought of the business since around the 2022-2023 school year, and now, two years into the making, he and his crew feel they are ready to finally start turning their thoughts into reality.
One resource that is guiding DECA along the way is the PTSA, who are helping uncover the specific interests and necessities of the community by providing the teachers association with students and parents which on some regard will help them determine what foods and items to sell. The school administrators are working to set boundaries in terms of what is available to sell and what to do with profit. They have developed partnerships with school departments to get in touch with the school community, including the wood shop, in which they plan to sell woodworking equipment and put it out for wood shop students. From the help of these partnerships and the many others Milano and his crew have acquired, the DECA club has been getting closer each day to accomplishing this vision. Milano and students feel confident they can get things going soon.
However, their overall-successful journey also comes with challenges. Milano remarks that food approvals are a difficult obstacle in progress. He also expresses the challenges that come with such a limited amount of time under a limited budget. As of the last few months they have been under way, DECA has set up and accomplished many to most of their business plans, but they are still in search of a credit card transaction machine and several other business necessities.
“[We have] a lot of really basic tasks that need to be completed, and we don’t have a ton of time to do it, so we’re working on it as best as we can,” states Milano.