TEAM ACCELERATE

Outside of WA DECA, Kayla enjoys working in her school’s Den while attending Cascadia Community college. She also avidly serves as an youth intern for her church’s contemporary band, and has a growing love for everything related to music: she has trained in classical music and was a competitive pianist for years, plays the cello and loves learning new instruments, and has even picked up the skills of songwriting and production. Kayla also loves spending time with family and friends, whether it be hiking a trail, trying a new restaurant, or doing an escape room!

DECA has opened doors for Kayla to meet people from so many different walks of life, and she has created some of her favorite core memories at conferences: she hopes to make DECA an educational, interactive, and most of all, enjoyable experience for students. She is honored to have the wonderful opportunity of serving Washington and is excited to meet members and make an impact!

Devan Harrison is honored to serve Area 2, which he knows is the best Area in the State. Currently Devan attends Roosevelt High School as a Senior and this year is his 4th year being a DECA member. Throughout his High School career in DECA, Devan placed 1st at ICDC in the Virtual Business Challenge-Personal Finance and was awarded for scoring in the top 10% of competitors at ICDC on the finance exam. He has also competed at State in his first 3 years competing in a variety of events and placed 3rd in Financial Consulting last year!

Devan’s goals for DECA this year is to make competition more fun by adding games to Area and State conferences and improve the chances of success for Area 2 and all of Washington. Additionally, he plans on largely increasing the size of Area 2 – because it is the best – and creating a better way for new members to decide how they want to do DECA. He also encourages existing Area 2 chapters to work with him to make Area 2 even better.

Along with being the Area 2 president, Devan will also be the VP of Finance. Where he will work to help chapters across the state budget and manage their financials. In the future Devan wants to study Economics and minor in Finance or Data Science. He knows that his experiences in DECA have shaped who he is and hopes to share that with others.

Within DECA Avianca placed 2nd in her Quick Serve Restaurant Management (QSRM) Roleplay freshman year at her Area competition. She also qualified for International Career Development Conference through a School-Based Enterprise (SBE) with her incredible team! Not only has Avianca competed she’s also been quite engaged within the DECA community. She was recently a part of the 2022-2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Officer team and within her school’s chapter she was Vice President of Marketing her freshman year, and Vice President of Hospitality and Finance her sophomore year. But outside of DECA Avianca participates in the National Honor Society, FCCLA, HOSA, volunteering at her local clothing drive, and tennis, she is also part of the Junior Class Council where she recently was part of the Sophomore and Freshman class council.

Avianca’s life motto is Theodore Roosevelt’s famous quote “It is hard to fail, but is worse to never have tried to succeed” because she knows if she doesn’t always take the opportunities that are put in front of her she’ll regret not trying at all. Roosevelt’s quote helped Avianca distinguish if running for Area 5 President was truly something she wanted to do. Not only has the quote pushed her to run for Area 5 President but so has the 13,000 members of Washington DECA. Her goal as Vice President of Hospitality is to make a lasting impact that will help uproot the course of many Washington DECA members and help her set up her life course as she hopes to attend Tulane University to receive her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and then proceed onto medical school so she can fulfill her career dream of becoming an OB-GYN.

He joined DECA as a regular club member of the Hanford High School chapter in 2021. He grew from a regular member to an ICDC competitor (Atlanta; 2022) and is now a WA State Officer as the Area 6 President.

The experiences that he has in DECA have taught him the importance of hard work, dedication, and prepared him as a next generation leader. He is extremely grateful for his growth as a leader and entrepreneur as a member of WA DECA.

His future goals are to pursue his interest in medicine by attending a top-tier university and earning a medical doctorate degree and ultimately becoming a surgeon or radiologist.

DECA played an important role in preparing him for a professional life beyond high school. It also enabled him to gain 21st-century skills to be a next-generation leader and helped him make lifelong connections.

He is so thankful for everything that he learned from WA DECA, and as a State Officer, he will continue the tradition and help all members of this fantastic organization maximize their potential.

He first found his interest in marketing through an internship with a nearby media company, and alongside business and marketing, Jay is also passionate about history. He has completed several research projects and is in the process of publishing a short history book.

At school, Jay is an officer for the Knowledge Bowl Team, and teaches elementary school students through the STEM Club. In addition, he loves to swim for his school’s swim team. Previously, he served as the Union High School DECA chapter’s Vice President twice before becoming Area 9’s leader. He hopes to eventually study either Economics or Political Science at college and work in the business field after.

Jay was born and raised in Vancouver, Washington, and throughout high school, DECA has helped Jay develop professional, interpersonal, and leadership skills. He hopes he can help Washington DECA provide those same development opportunities for its 13,000+ members, and looks forward to supporting his fellow DECA members in the upcoming year

Caitlin Pham is a junior from West Valley High School in Yakima. She was thrilled to be given the amazing opportunity to serve as one of your Vice Presidents of Leadership for 2023-2024. She is entering her third year of DECA, and was lucky enough to be an ICDC finalist and the 2023 Area 10 Member of the Year. Although she does not have a specific career plan, she would love to either work for the United Nations doing humanitarian work and peace-keeping with a degree in International Relations or for a non-profit that combats food insecurity. If she has spare time, she enjoys embroidering gifts for her family and friends, as well as sewing, Knowledge Bowl, and reading classic literature.

Throughout her years in DECA, Caitlin has found that many people get swept up in competition and forget that DECA is about more than business and marketing. She believes that every member has the opportunity to grow their heart and community through DECA! With chapter and advisor support, every individual is perfectly capable of launching their own campaign to better their community in different ways. Caitlin has found that the impact you can make this way will stick with you just as long as a championship medal. Please reach out to her with questions or comments at any time.