Sitting in his Personal Finance class last semester, sophomore Azim Djuraev didn’t expect to become involved in Pattonville’s DECA chapter. Like many other students, he didn’t know much about the club and what it entailed, but decided to join out of an initially small interest. Today, months after the preliminary district and state competitions, Djuraev is only a week away from attending DECA’s International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
DECA is a high school club with a mission to “prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.”
Though his involvement in DECA has been brief, Djuraev still found success this year by earning the prestigious Leadership Delegate title for Missouri’s District 7 (consisting of the Pattonville, Hazelwood, and McCluer school districts, among others).
“During district competitions [in February], I competed for the Leadership Delegate role,” he said. “I had an interview with a judge that day and wrote an essay beforehand. Since I got first place, I automatically qualified for Internationals.”
Though Djuraev won’t compete in Atlanta during the conference, he will attend several workshops over the course of the week with a focus on leadership. Djuraev hopes to gain some knowledge on campaigning for district or state officer positions in case he decides to run in the future, but says his main goal is to make business connections during this unique educational opportunity.
“It’ll be good for me to make those connections now while I’m young, especially since business is something I want to go into someday,” Djuraev noted.
