FRANKFORT — Members of the Frankfort Rotary Club heard Thursday how a question asked at a job interview 25 years ago launched one of Frankfort High School’s most accomplished academic programs — one that has produced international competitors, operated a student cookie business, and quietly fed food-insecure children every weekend for nearly 15 years.
DECA advisor Amanda Graham-Bishop, joined by students Lily Rockhold and Karla Chuca presented the chapter’s history and achievements at the club’s Thursday noon meeting.
Built From a Single Question
Graham-Bishop founded the Frankfort DECA chapter in 2000 — her first year at FHS — after pitching the idea in her hiring interview.
“In that interview with Mr. (John) Milholland, I said, may I start a DECA chapter? And he’s like, ‘Sure, I don’t even know what that is,'” she told the Rotarians.
DECA is not a club. At Frankfort High School it operates as a co-curricular organization embedded in the Marketing and Sales pathway. Students enrolled in the pathway are automatic DECA members and can take courses including
- Principles of Business Management,
- Marketing Fundamentals,
- Digital Marketing,
- Social Media Marketing, and
- Strategic Marketing
— several of which earn college credit free of charge. Indiana DECA has roughly 4,800 members; national membership stands at about 400,000. The national/international organization was founded in 1946.
Competition at Every Level
DECA competitors advance through district, state, and the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). Frankfort has sent 193 students to the international level since 2000, and three former FHS students have placed third in the world in public relations.
This year’s ICDC was held in Atlanta. Rockhold, a junior serving as chapter president now and next year, competed in financial consulting after placing second at the state level.
“I really just think ICDC was such a great way for me to meet new people and network,” she said.
Vice President Carla Chuca competed in restaurant service management and helped edit a DECA Backpack Buddies video. Next year’s ICDC moves to Anaheim, California. Students in the Strategic Marketing course also traveled to New York City this year, visiting the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square, Summit One Vanderbilt, and Broadway’s production of *Stranger Things*.
Backpack Buddies: Feeding Students in Secret
Since the 2010–2011 school year, Frankfort DECA has run Backpack Buddies, a weekend food program for K-12 students in the Community Schools of Frankfort who face food insecurity. Bags of easy-to-prepare, non-perishable items are distributed each week. School counselors identify recipients anonymously — DECA students never know who gets the food.
“We only know how many backpack buddies need to go to what school. We never know who the student is,” Graham-Bishop said.
The program was started by a student named Hadley Catron, inspired by an earlier project called “A Strike for the Starving.” Graham-Bishop recalled the moment the idea was proposed.
“It seemed like a daunting, overwhelming, mammoth commitment,” she said. “She said absolutely. And boy, did she start a new tradition that Frankfort DECA is so incredibly proud of.”
The Rotary Club is among the program’s most consistent donors, alongside local churches, individuals, and area businesses. Food sourcing has evolved from Lafayette Food Finders and Sam’s Club runs to commercial ordering through US Foods, coordinated with the Community Schools of Frankfort Food Service Director. Some former Backpack Buddies recipients have since enrolled at FHS and now help run the program themselves.
Graham-Bishop offered a striking measure of what success would look like.
“I think it would be so incredibly powerful to be able to say to DECA students at the beginning of the school year, ‘Hey, great news — we don’t need to do DECA Backpack Buddies anymore,'” she said. “But the reason I say that is Backpack Buddies would not need to continue if there wasn’t a need in our community.”
Frankfort DECA has raised more than $250,000 through community service efforts since 2000. The chapter also operates DECA Cookies, a student-run cookie business that earned national Student Business Enterprise certification for the fifth consecutive year. Next year the chapter will compete under the international DECA theme: “The Next Big Thing.”