Bustling across Hilton Anatole’s Convention Center in business attire and with sales pitches prepared, 252 students competed at the Distributive Education Careers of America (DECA) State Career Development Conference (SCDC) from Thursday, March 6 to Saturday, March 8. Standing out amongst over 7,500 competitors at the conference, 75 Warriors advanced to the next stage, and will head to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). 

The three-day conference allowed members to compete and network with students across the state. On the operational side, officers and chaperones coordinated transportation and room assignments.

“As the largest chapter at [SCDC], with over 250 members, I’m extremely thankful for everyone’s collaboration and cooperation among the officers, students, and the adults to run the conference as smoothly as possible,” President Aiden Wen ’26 said.  

While over 50 students qualified for ICDC in their traditional competitive events, this year brought record achievements in virtual events as well: 15 members will be competing in Virtual Business Challenge or the Stock Market Game. Virtual events involve students running simulations in various career clusters — from personal finance to fashion.  

“I saw everyone working hard and running the simulation over and over again, trying to bring their best to these virtual challenges,” Wen said. “I am excited to see these 15 members compete live at ICDC.” 

The freshmen in particular excelled in their competition, with 11 qualifying to compete at the international level. Students like Apple Ma ’28 began preparing for competition as early as November, taking almost every practice test offered and practicing role plays, which is a class of competitive events. 

“I am proud of the work I put in, and I wouldn’t have prepared any other way,” Ma said. “No matter what, it’s important to have fun while competing and to prepare to the best of your ability.”

Carrying on the leadership-oriented legacy of Westwood DECA, Josephine Sun ’26 was elected as one of the State Vice Presidents of Texas DECA, succeeding former State Vice President Shivani Kondubhatla ’25. Leading over 25,000 members, Sun hopes to create more equitable competition resources and foster community connections. With Arnav Maskey ’26 serving as the District 5 Vice President and Sun now leading the state, representation in leadership like this at Westwood’s DECA chapter has been unseen.

“I’m excited to work behind-the-scenes as [a state officer], especially for ICDC,” Sun said. “The last time we went to Orlando, I was a freshman — it feels full circle.” 

The following students will compete at ICDC in Orlando, Florida from April 26-29: 

Principles of Business Management and Administration: Apple Ma ’28 

Principles of Entrepreneurship: Ava Stidvent ’28 

Principles of Finance: Nithin Reddy Vemula ’28, Catherine Zheng ’28 

Principles of Marketing: Mia Shetty ’28 

Accounting Applications Series: Adarsh Rajesh ’25, Ryan Lee ’25 

Hotel and Lodging Management Series: Krish Shenoy ’27, Josephine Sun ’26, Medha Katragadda ’25

Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series: Jatin Aggarwal ’26

Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making: Brijnandan Saranu ’27, Joshua Boersema ’27 

Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making: Rutu Ruparel ’25, Mishree Narasaiah ’25

Hospitality & Tourism Team Decision Making: Reett Aulakh ’28, Aanya Pathak ’28 

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Sidhant Sen ’25, Prince Kumar ’25 

Financial Consulting: Saisha Siram ’26

Professional Selling: Diya Shakkottai ’27, Uma Sthanu ’26 

Integrated Marketing Campaign Product: Shivali Sahu ’26 

Integrated Marketing Campaign Service: Sophia Ng ’26, Parmida Jamali ’26, Aarya Kale ’26, Avishka Boina ’26

Career Development Project: Dawoon Jung ’25, Chloe Oakley ’25, Isabella Shi ’25, Arjun Bhardwaj ’25, Aarvin Hirode ’25, Samarth Margasahayam ’25, Aryan Sehgal ’26 

Community Giving Project: Ashka Rajbhandari ’28, Lucinda McWilliams ’28

Financial Literacy Project: Talia Philip ’25, Cheyenne Wang ’25

Business Services Operations Research: Aiden Wen ’26

Hospitality & Tourism Operations Research: Shivani Kondubhatla ’25, Shrishti Mahajan ’25, Yujie Zhang ’25 

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research: Camila Carrillo ’25, Shuyu Lai ’25, Sophie Liu ’25, Maya Rajan ’28, Alexandra Oancea ’27 

Franchise Business Plan: Romita Sur ’27, Rounav Sur ’27, Allison Zhuang ’27

Innovation Plan: Lakshay Batra ’26, Anish Bhat ’25 

International Business Plan: Vandya Agarwal ’28 

Start-up Business Plan: Anika Aslesh ’26, Sanjana Aslesh ’26, Dhiya Balajee ’26 

Stock Market Game: Shreyan Khanna ’27, Ruhan Gupta ’27, Victor Lehr ’26, Zuhair Amin ’26, Alexis Correia ’26, Levi Kim ’27, Sahil Jain ’27 

Virtual Business Challenge – Accounting: Dhiyaan Nirmal ’25, Shaurya Pathania ’25, Shrey Birmiwal ’25 

Virtual Business Challenge – Personal Finance: Neev Gupta ’25, Loy Bhowmick ’25, Visshwa Balasubramanian ’25 

Virtual Business Challenge – Restaurant: Phoenix Mielcarek ’25, Anvay Todkar ’25

What IB Teacher are you?

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Question 1/10

What is your favorite color?

Bright kelly green

Lavender purple

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Royal purple

Goldenrod yellow

Dark pine green

Cerulean blue

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Question 2/10

If Westwood had a recess period, how would you spend it?

Go for a run

Play baseball and football

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Read, play frisbee, and computer games

Play basketball, tennis, or soccer

Read and spend time outdoors

Solve logic puzzles and Rubik's cubes

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Question 3/10

What high school archetype do you fit into?

Smart and bored

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Question 4/10

What musical genre do you listen to most often?

Rap or hip hop

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Question 5/10

Which movie could you rewatch incessantly?

The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick

The Sacrifice by Andrei Tarkovsky

Stranger than Fiction by Marc Forster

Conan the Barbarian by John Milius

Everything Everywhere All at Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan

Night at the Museum by Shawn Levy

Top Gun by Tony Scott

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Question 6/10

How do you deal with stress?

Scream

Lift weights

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Cook

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Question 7/10

Which foreign country would you most like to visit?

Turkey

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Nepal

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Question 8/10

What annoys you most, out of the following?

People not pushing in chairs

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Having to repeat yourself

People putting down others for their ego

People who don't communicate clearly

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Question 9/10

Why are you in IB?

To be in a tight-knit community

To gain a global consciousness

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To pursue interdisciplinary studies

You're intrinsically motivated

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Question 10/10

Which surprising skill do you have (or want to have)?

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Over 500 Distributive Education Careers of America (DECA) members headed to McNeil High School to put their business skills to test on Saturday, Jan. 11 at the District Career Development Conference. Competing in a series of role plays, presentations, and written events, 257 students qualified to the next level, DECA State — making Westwood the school with the most state qualifiers in the entire district. 

With a competitive season full of unprecedented changes, such as budget cuts and McNeil being a new location for Districts, members were pushed to adjust to a different structure of the conference. 

“We didn’t get to experience those early, tight-knit mornings on the buses [because] we had to drive ourselves,” Shuyu Lai ’25 said. “But at the end of the day, [my partners and I] went into a room and presented to a judge like normal.” 

Representing Warrior DECA, Arnav Maskey ’26 was elected to serve as one of the District 5 Vice Presidents. After undergoing an arduous election process including an interview, officer exam, and a final speech to voting delegates, Maskey will now lead over 3000 members across the city. 

“My goal [as a district officer] is to add more value and capabilities to DECA, allowing more members to experience this organization in Austin,” Maskey said. 

The following students will be heading to the State Career Development Conference in Dallas, TX from March 6-8: 

Apparel and Accessories Marketing Series: Nitya Dani ‘26, Nithin Shankara ‘26, Sai Anumakonda ‘27, Avery Chen ‘26

Accounting Applications Series: Vinay Reddy ‘25, Victor Lehr ‘26, Adarsh Rajesh ‘25, Roger Peng ‘26, Rafay Chaudhry ‘25, Ryan Lee ‘25

Business Finance Series: Isha Gokhale ‘26, Savya Bhat ‘26, Nischal Kotamraju ‘27, Jai Shenoy ‘27, Aattoja Das ‘28, Tarun Kallur ‘25, Darren Han ‘27, Vishan Lakhia ‘27

Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making: Loy, Bhowmick ‘25, Neev Gupta ‘25, Brijnandan Saranu ‘27, Joshua Boersema ‘27, Haoxin Wang ‘26, Rupal Jain ‘27, Aman Dave ‘27, Hanish Mamidi ‘27, Raina Nasta ‘28, Vishwa Parakkuth ‘28

Buying and Merchandising Operations Research: Riti Meeniga ‘25, Anchal Yadav ‘25, Yan Rong ‘25, Shraddha Sule ‘25, Preethi Ram ‘25, Hannah Mary Vinesh ‘25

Business Services Operations Research: Aiden Wen ‘26, Liam Beekman ‘27, Nicholas Ledesma ‘27, Aaron Yoo ‘27, Anandiganga Raj ‘27, Sarah Yang ‘27, Isabelle Call ‘28, Sailee Chitari ‘28, Preeya Panwalker ‘28

Business Services Marketing Series:  Arnav Maskey ‘26, Aayush Kumar ‘25, Roshan Paul ‘25

Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making: Daniel Nam ‘25, Suchir Kumar ‘25, Sahana Jelakara ‘28, Reesha Malpani ‘28

Franchise Business Plan: Romita Sur ‘27, Allison Zhuang ‘27, Rounav Sur ‘27, Remy Simpson ‘25, Lily Yang ‘25, Aryan Bandi ‘25

Independent Business Plan: Michelle Li ‘26, Eileen Wu ‘26

Innovation Plan: Naithruv Kashyap ‘25, Vedanth Kashyap ‘27, Adam Menezes ‘25, Mit Vadsaria ‘25, Rayyan Maredia ‘25, Aalim Prasla ‘26, Lakshay Batra ‘26, Anish Bhat ‘25, Srirang Girish ‘26, Om Kalyani ‘26, Rohit Pochugari ‘26, Jiho Lee ‘26, Asna Kadiwal ‘26, Sofia Finkbeiner ‘26

Entrepreneurship Series: Tiffany Gao ‘27, Vishnu Mahadasu ‘26, Vedant Desai ‘26, Guy Kahler ‘25

Start-Up Business Plan: Shrey Birmiwal ‘25, Dhiyaan Nirmal ‘25, Shaurya Pathania ‘25, Anika Aslesh ‘26, Sanjana Aslesh ‘26, Dhiya Balajee ‘26

Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making: Rutu Ruparel ‘25, Mishree Narasaiah ‘25, Iba Haider ‘25, Violet Hewett ‘25, John Chubick ‘25, Zachary Stenglein ‘25, Dhruv Ray ‘25, Paul Tutuc ‘25, Erin Shin ‘28, Julianne Wu ‘28

Financial Consulting: Saisha Siram ‘26, Sahiti Oruganti ‘25, Arihant Sen ‘25

Food Marketing Series: Arnesh Chatterjee ‘26, Mahathi Harith ‘25

Financial Services Team Decision Making: Shubhankar Deshpande ‘27, Darryl Tang ‘27, Aarav Karumanchi ‘28, William Du ‘28

Hotel and Lodging Management Series: Ishaan Sampat ‘27, Josephine Sun ‘26, Medha Katragadda ‘25, Arnav Chinnappareddy ‘26, Alexis Correia ‘26, Krish Shenoy ‘27

Human Resources Management Series: Iris Wang ‘26, Iris Chen ‘26, Jeremy Yang ‘26, Viraj Gadiya ‘26, Betul Ozgen ‘26, Vaishnavi Dhurjati ‘25

Hospitality Services Team Decision Making: Roshni Muthuswamy ‘27, Rafael Longoria ‘27, Reett Aulakh ‘28,  Aanya Pathak ‘28

Hospitality & Tourism Operations Research: Shrishti Mahajan ‘25, Shivani Kondubhatla ‘25, Yujie Zhang ‘25

Hospitality & Tourism Professional Selling: Soojin Ahn ‘26

International Business Plan: Tanvi Kadiri ‘25, Phylicia Ren ‘25, Joshua Shen ‘27, Haein Jung ‘27, Sahil Jain ‘27, Vandya Agarwal ‘28

Integrated Marketing Campaign-Product: Shivali Sahu ‘26, Naina Asuthker ‘26, Anya Gupta ‘26, Sudeep Tatineni ‘26, Navaneeth Yarram ‘26, Elena Xiao ‘27, Emily Xue ‘27

Integrated Marketing Campaign-Service: Avishka Boina ‘26, Aarya Kale ‘26, Nandini Somarapu ‘25, Lahari Gadi ‘26, Satyanandana Thallam ‘26,  Prisha Mohan ‘25, Saanika Parikh ‘26, Ahanaa Satyanarayanan ‘26, Pranavi Yadiki ‘26, Parmida Jamali ‘26, Sophia Ng ‘26

Marketing Communications Series: Aarush Upadhya ‘26, Arya Ramaiah ‘26, Vishnu Guntakala ‘27, Divyani Behera ‘26

Marketing Management Team Decision Making: Romir Jain ‘25, James Li, ‘25 Samhita Nagarakanti ‘26, Nishita Mukkara ‘26, Byron Schneider ‘27, Jingbin Tan ‘27

Principles of Business Management and Administration: Kyla Cretencio ‘28, Raadhika Singh ‘28, Arsh Babwani ‘25, Apple Ma ‘28, Mia Rhie ‘28, Prajwal Akula ‘25

Principles of Entrepreneurship: Jacob Dubrow ‘25, Ava Stidvent ‘28

Personal Financial Literacy: Arjun Kurane ‘26

Principles of Finance: Nithin Reddy Vemula ‘28, Catherine Zheng ‘28, Nihal Grandhi ‘28, Aarav Singh ‘26, Nathaniel Horton ‘27

Principles of Hospitality & Tourism: Akshara Reddy ‘28, Kedaar Jayagopal ‘28

Business Solutions Project: Sriya Chakravarthy ‘27, Yonnie Yang ‘27, Emma Rincon ‘26, Satchi Patki ‘26, Yanqing Hua ‘28, Haolang Liu ‘28, Aarav Kumar ‘26

Community Awareness Project: Parisha Acharya ‘27, Emily Rincon ‘26, Sheerali Talati ‘27

Career Development Project: Chloe Oakley ‘25, Isabella Shi ‘25, Dawoon Jung ‘25, Aryan Sehgal ‘26, Meera Iyengar ‘26, Xinyi Lai ‘26, Reva Chandane ‘26, Aarvin Hirode ‘25, Arjun Bhardwaj ‘25, Samarth Margasahayam ‘25

Community Giving Project: Lucinda McWilliams ‘28, Ashka Rajbhandari ‘28

Financial Literacy Project: Krish Arora ‘25, Talia Philip ‘25, Cheyenne Wang ‘25, Sai Surapaneni ‘25, Saanvi Devpura ‘27, Pakhi Rai ‘25

Principles of Marketing: Maya Alas ‘27, Chandrika Ghosh ‘26, Mia Shetty ‘28, Kaan Danisik ‘28

Sales Project: Rishitha Balla ‘25

Professional Selling: Uma Sthanu ‘26, Diya Shakkottai ‘27, Aarohi Bhattacharya ‘25, Nav Parikh ‘28

Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series: Jatin Aggarwal ‘26

Restaurant and Food Service Management Series: Prajna Parajuli ‘26

Retail Merchandising Series: Arunachalam Arunachalam ‘27, Sravya Akella ‘26

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series: Ayan Nagulapally ‘26, Alisha Shireen ‘26, Lasyasri Mutluru ‘25, Varun Aditya Nanduri ‘26

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research: Sophie Liu ‘25, Shuyu Lai ‘25,

Camila Carrillo ‘25, Benjamin Li ‘25, Ian Shone ‘25, Andrew Zhang ‘25, Rachana Akkineni ‘26,

Alexandra Oancea ‘27, Maya Rajan ‘28, Aditya Bhadra ‘28, Ishaan Sagar ‘28

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Prince Kumar ‘25, Sidhant Sen ‘25, Audrey Savoie ‘26, Ojasvi Chourasia ‘26, Austin Gu ‘27, Marshall Sjariffudin ‘27, Alonzo Estrada ‘25, Luca Suliin ‘25

Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making: Shruthi Srikanth ‘25, Marlene Luo ‘25, Shrika Prakash ‘26, Samhita Guntakala ‘26, Siddhanth Ramachandran ‘26, Aayush Vishnoi ‘26, Helen Zhang ‘26, William Zhang ‘26, Nirvik Pande ‘25, Akaash Reddy ‘25, Riya Chauhan ‘25, Anella Mason ‘25, Shiven Makkar ‘27, Ali Aslam ‘27, Suhan Venkat ‘27, Varun Sanghavi ‘27, Tisya Dave ‘27, Jordyn Choe ‘27

After a year of questioning the nature of knowledge and delving into various global perspectives, seniors in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program have completed their Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course. The past year of TOK has welcomed numerous thought experiments and projects for students, and seniors officially bid their farewell to this course at the Gault Archaeological Site on Friday, Dec. 13. 

TOK, a standout class in the IB program, is broken down into two semesters — with it beginning in the second semester of students’ junior year and concluding at the end of their first semester in senior year. The discussion-based course is centered around philosophy and the nature of knowledge. For students, this field trip invited reflection about their learnings over the past year concerning humanity’s origins and development.

“You’re standing up [at the Gault Site], looking at this ranch and creek and rocks, and you’re just like, ‘How could this have been the home of one of the most profound and most groundbreaking discoveries in all of archeology?’,” Chase Klipec ’25 said. “And, it’s just 30 miles from Westwood.” 

This semester, the overarching theme of TOK has been origin. Seniors completed Oikos projects (“Oikos” is Greek for home) in mid-October, where they uncovered the culture and history of Austin through video series and murals. The field trip to the Gault Site served as an extension of their findings. 

“With the Oikos project this year, we explored our community [and] local environment that we live in,” Mishree Narasaiah ’25 said. “So going to the archeological site really helped us kind of see a manifestation of how that could be important in the real world.” 

Due to district-wide budget cuts, TOK classes look different than they have traditionally. While past class sizes have ranged from around 15 to 25 students, current blocks accommodate almost 40 people — creating a sense of disconnect among IB students. However, students note that the trip to the Gault Site has helped bridge that gap. 

“It’s been harder to have discussions with the whole class, and it’s not as tight-knit as last semester,”  Sanjana Alluri ’25 said. “But going on this trip together has connected all of us, and it reminded me that we are all going our separate ways in a few months.” 

On the field trip, seniors were split off into groups and went on a tour of the entire site, learning about various tools and methodologies to uncover Clovis culture, an archaeological culture from the Paleoindian period of North America. But on the trip, students were accompanied by chilly and rainy weather. 

“I think that the weather made the entire experience sort of meditative,” Klipec said. “Under this completely cloudy sky, it’s drizzling, and all that we’re doing is standing there silently, listening to tour guides talk about the past. It had the effect of putting me in the moment. I was listening and taking it all in.”

Teachers across the IB program were invited to supervise and chaperone the field trip, which prompted introspection about the connections between archaeology and varying academic principles. For IB Chemistry Teacher Mr. Joseph Griesel, exploring the Gault Site reinforced his passion for the hands-on learning that IB offers, and even gave him insight into his teaching style. 

“Our tour guide discussed the contingent aspects of archaeology, about how people poke holes in the work they were doing [at the site],” Mr. Griesel said. “This was interesting because it showed me how I can apply TOK concepts to my Chemistry classes, [for example] getting students to constantly question concepts in Chemistry [Extended Essays].” 

Although the trip was primarily meant to reinforce IB ideals and conclude the seniors’ year of TOK, visiting the Gault Site served as a reminder for students to seek balance and appreciate nature. 

“[Being outside] is good for your health [and] good for your mind, just being able to sort of invent how you live your life and invent something with the materials and sticks,” Klipec said. “There’s a freedom to being outside.”

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. 

We’re in ROLE MODEL’s world — one filled with clever songcraft, impeccable intentionality, and vulnerable storytelling. In 12 songs, ROLE MODEL, the recording alias of Maine native Tucker Pillsbury, transported listeners through a whirlwind of heartache and self-discovery in Kansas Anymore. An ode to his ex-girlfriend Emma Chamberlain, the album — released in mid-July — is a  love story disguised as the typical breakup album. With a blend of upbeat melodies and introspective lyrics, Kansas Anymore left listeners aching for more albums centered on raw honesty and respect in the music stratosphere. 

Kicking off the album with Writing’s On The Wall, the upbeat track  is tinged with feelings of confusion and frustration after being left by his girlfriend. With lyrics like “Cause the girl that I loved never treated me nice” and “Why am I still in love with somebody who leaves me way too easy?”, listeners are immediately drawn into the emotional turmoil that the track presents. But Pillsbury leaves that anger behind as he takes listeners through the rest of the album. While frictionlessly woven together, the next track, Look at that Woman absolutely juxtaposes this intense introduction. A soft and sweet ballad, this second song is a concoction of love, regret, and awe — truly setting the tone for the rest of the album. 

Frances, a standout track, cements the album as a tribute to Chamberlain, with “Frances” actually being Chamberlain’s middle name. The song underscores a deep admiration and affection for Pillbury’s ex-girlfriend, adding a layer of intimacy and respect to the album that breakup albums often lack.  Ranging from catchy songs like Superglue that will get stuck in your head and deserve to be blasted on car rides home, to lingering tracks of heartbreak like Slipfast that will capture nostalgia and regret, Kansas Anymore really is a cyclone of emotions that sweep listeners through every high and low of loss and heartache. And closing off the album — a personal favorite — Something, Somehow, Someday ties the ribbon through offering a sense of closure and hope. It’s a track that leaves you with a feeling of optimism, with introspective notes that resonate long after the final chord fades.

Leading the largest organization on campus with over 550 members, Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) President Aiden Wen ’26 envisions a chapter filled with competitive success and community. But Wen is different: he is only a junior — unlike most of the past DECA presidents.

Shortly after Wen took on the role of president, the district introduced new policies and rules for DECA in order to combat district-wide budget cuts, forcing Wen and the rest of the organization to quickly adapt. The first of the changes was the Career and Technical Education (CTE) rule, requiring students to be registered in a CTE course to be considered a member. With this rule already taking a toll on membership, novel pre-competition checkpoints were also instated, where members had to pass a round prior to Districts, the first competition of the season. 

“The coordination of all of these new requirements — and letting members [who had been in DECA in the past] acknowledge these changes — have been some of the new challenges that we’ve had to face this year,” Wen said. 

In addition to maneuvering through the unprecedented policy changes that Wen has had to handle for the chapter, he hopes to change the general operations of the chapter through taking members’ feedback over the years and his own past experiences into account. 

Wen’s workload looks different from prior presidents, not having to balance his duties with tasks such as college applications. Nonetheless, he hopes to support other officers who are seniors that do have to take on these additional responsibilities. 

“Everyone has duties, and it’s important to follow these duties,” Wen said. “However, we are a family [and] a community, so we want to help each other out and step in [when officers] are in their busier times.” 

Wen’s vision for this chapter revolves around bolstering competitive success through increasing training opportunities. The implementation of training pods, which are led by each training director, group members into their event clusters for training-specific events. This new method also allows for increased communication between officers and members, creating a culture of collaboration. 

“We have not reached our peak — we are still developing as a chapter,” Wen said. “The idea is that one passionate training director can serve so many members and do so much good for our community [in these training pods].” 

But Wen hopes to serve more than just his chapter. Leading one of the largest DECA chapters in Texas, Wen believes that Westwood DECA has a duty to provide resources to smaller and newer chapters across the state.  

“The point of DECA is to give these real-life business opportunities to every student who wants to experience them,” Wen said. “As a larger chapter, we have a responsibility to contribute to that larger vision of DECA.” 

Taking inspiration from past officers, Wen embraces both the past and present of the chapter. While he hopes to maintain traditions like the annual canned food drive and DECA Day (the chapter’s mock competition), he aims to expand these events and center them around training. 

“The concept of training is relatively new with these past presidents, and since then, we’ve expanded a lot on their implementations,” Wen said.

As the president of DECA, Wen works around the clock — from the moment he comes to school. Checking in with sponsor Ms. Desireé Wells in the mornings, Wen works on tasks such as registration and communicating chapter updates to her. During and after school, he prioritizes delegating tasks and planning new ideas for the chapter. 

“One thing that I’ve really focused on this year is doing a lot of automation, programming, and formulas to maximize accuracy [with tasks such as event assignments],” Wen said. 

Finding community is one of the primary reasons students join organizations such as DECA. Yet with a chapter as large as Westwood’s, promoting this sense of belonging and community has not been a priority for past officer teams, with other responsibilities like registration and competition preparation taking precedence. But Wen is changing that: he hopes that the creation of training pods not only bolster competitive success but also serve as a forum for chapter bonding. 

 “Creating community is definitely easier with 100 members [which we had] five years ago than [with] 500 members like it is today,” Wen said. “But if you have such a large group, the idea of family evolves.”