Oak Forest, Bremen High School DECA teams return from Nationals

OAK FOREST, IL - Bremen High School District 228’s Oak Forest and Bremen High School DECA teams have returned from the National DECA competition in Atlanta, Georgia, after competing against thousands of other high school teams around the world.

Both Oak Forest and Bremen High School teams qualified for the competition after competing at the state-wide level.

More than 10,000 DECA members demonstrated their college and career knowledge, and skills by participating in DECA’s Competitive Events Program. The students traveled to Atlanta as finalists from their chartered associations, hoping to be named an international champion.

Although neither school had placed at a national level, students and teachers involved were proud of the accomplishments and experiences they had to share.

“The classes are taught from a project based approach, and then the students use those projects as their base for learning about marketing, and DECA in business,” said Katie Gomez, Oak Forest High School DECA sponsor. “The students qualified for state. And then from state, we had a lot of students qualify for nationals, so just getting to Nationals was huge. But on top of all these projects that students are doing, there's obviously classroom learning going on.”

At Nationals, the team presented their school-based enterprise, a T-shirt business. During their nationals presentation, the team talked about the pros and cons of the business, how they don’t just create shirts for the school, but for the community as well. The team also donates some of their proceeds to charities.

“We didn't come home with any medals, but the skills that these kids are going to have for a lifetime are worth way more; and you can’t put a price tag on that,” Gomez said.

Not only did the students participate in the competition, they also enjoyed their time in Atlanta as a team.

“It was an eye opening experience. It was fun to meet new people and learn what their DECA teams do,” said Heather Gibbs, DECA member and senior at Oak Forest High School. “We definitely went in there not knowing what to expect, but we kind of just gave it our all and did our best.”

About Bremen High School District 228
Bremen High School District 228 is located in the southwest suburbs of Chicago and serves the communities of Midlothian, Posen, Tinley Park, Markham, Hazel Crest, Country Club Hills and Oak Forest. District 228 serves over 5,000 students and employs 800 full and part-time staff members. Bremen High School, in Midlothian, opened its doors to students in September of 1953. Since then, District 228 opened three additional schools. Tinley Park High School opened in 1961; Hillcrest High School, in Country Club Hills, opened in 1967; and Oak Forest High School opened in 1970. For more information, please visit https://www.bhsd228.com/