Glenwood Springs DECA duo finishes second at state

Click to Enlarge Browse and Buy Post Independent Photos Lyndsey Wesson, left, and Haylie Westphal placed second in their event at the state DECA competition two weeks ago and will compete at the International Career Development Conference next month in Atlanta. Submitted Photo

By Pete Fowler
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
March 5, 2008

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GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Glenwood Springs High School seniors Haylie Westphal and Lyndsey Wesson prepared a plan to increase profits from hotel room phones at a major hotel in about 26 minutes.

They didn’t expect to win at the state DECA competition. But after pitching ideas for that scenario, they placed second two weeks ago in hospitality team decision making and will compete at the International Career Development Conference April 26 in Atlanta.

“We didn’t think we would actually place, but we did,” Haylie said.

“There was a lot of screaming,” Lyndsey added.

In their final role-playing scenario at the state competition, the two pitched several ideas to a DECA judge. They packaged hotel room phone usage with other services like pay-per-view and room service. They recommended creating office spaces at the ends of hotel hallways to offer something more than just phone service. They planned to distribute brochures and customer surveys in hotel rooms.

Other state DECA finalists

• Seth Carmitchel and Michael Norris in sports and entertainment marketing • Chelsea Vallario and Sharaya Selsor in travel and tourism marketing • Dillon Martin and Evan Buchholzer in business law and ethics decision making • Jason Whiting in sports and entertainment marketing

Brochures would explain the benefits of using hotel phones over mobile phones, like the fact that they wouldn’t run out of batteries or drop calls. If a customer bought the hotel phone package, they could even get 10 percent off of their Verizon Wireless bill. That’s made possible because the hotel would purchase Internet service from Verizon. The ideas sounded good to the judge.

GSHS DECA teacher Bryan Whiting said there were around 2,100 students total at the state DECA competition. About 412 teams competed in the event the GSHS team won. The school ranked 10th of 96 schools overall. Two years ago was the last time GSHS students made it to the national competition, which actually includes competitors from about 47 foreign countries.

Lyndsey and Haylie will travel in style with the Cherry Creek High School team in a private chartered airplane, they said.

In DECA events, students take written tests and play a wide variety of business roles. Lyndsey and Haylie said the practices of thinking on the fly, being creative and learning about business will help them in the job world. Students find out what roles they’ll play and problems they’ll have to solve shortly before role-playing events.

“I think the biggest challenge is just the idea that you really can’t practice them because you don’t know what the situation is going to be,” Whiting said. “So in class you spend most of your time helping your students acquire the knowledge and skills they can pull out to meet a particular situation.”

Both Lyndsey and Haylie plan on studying business in college.

Contact Pete Fowler: 384-9121
pfowler@postindependent.com




Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO