Metro Tech DECA Chapter Nationally Recognized for Outstanding School-based Enterprise

Metro Tech’s DECA Chapter and its school-based enterprise (SBE), The Lakeside Cafe, were among ten SBEs in Oklahoma to achieve gold certification for the 2025–2026 school year. The contributing students from Metro Tech’s Entrepreneurship program will be recognized at DECA’s International Career Development Conference in Atlanta in April.

A school-based enterprise (SBE) is an entrepreneurial operation in a school setting that provides goods and services. SBEs are managed and operated by students as hands-on learning laboratories that integrate National Curriculum Standards in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA advisors have used this effective educational tool for over four decades to provide students with realistic, practical learning experiences.

The Lakeside Café, located within the Business & Technology Center on the Metro Tech Springlake Campus, has been in operation for 12 years by Entrepreneurship students who prepare and serve snacks, coffee, tea, and custom T-shirts and apparel. 

Metro Tech DECA members who contributed to this year's certification were Angie Flores, Carlos Careon, Viridiana Diaz-Ladin, and Veronica Meza-Palacios, with the assistance of their DECA chapter advisor, Taiseka Moore-Adams. DECA’s School-based Enterprise Certification Program provides recognition for outstanding achievement by SBEs and motivates them to strive for excellence and growth.

“DECA’s School-based Enterprise Certification Program is a rigorous process designed to help DECA members demonstrate their classroom learning in a practical, learning laboratory, and then translate that into meaningful outcomes,” said Christopher Young, CAE, Chief Program Officer at DECA Inc. “These DECA members are practicing important workplace readiness skills while preparing for college and careers.”