Metro Tech DECA Chapter to be Nationally Recognized for Outstanding School-Based Enterprise

Metro Tech's Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) Chapter and its school-based enterprise (SBE), the Lakeside Café, have achieved gold-level certification for the 2023-2024 school year. Standing among only seven SBEs in Oklahoma and 728 nationwide, Metro Tech will be recognized at DECA's International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, California, in April 2024.

An SBE is an entrepreneurial operation in a school setting that provides hands-on learning laboratories that integrate National Curriculum Standards in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. The Lakeside Café, located on the Springlake Campus, has been in operation for 10 years by Metro Tech Entrepreneurship students who prepare and serve various snack foods, drinks, and coffee.

Metro Tech DECA members who contributed to the certification were Giovani Frasquillo, Valeria Gonzalez-Flores, Jayden Matthews, Deonna McIntosh, Laila Rashad, John Rottler, Anderson Vasquez-Alvarez and Sherman Young, with the assistance of their DECA Chapter Advisor, Taiseka Moore-Adams.

"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," Christopher Young, CAE, Chief Program Officer at DECA Inc., said. "These DECA members are practicing important workplace readiness skills while preparing for college and careers."