S-C Tiger Tailgate Store Earns National Recognition From DECA

Smith-Cotton Tiger Tailgate, the school store at Smith-Cotton High School, is among 461 school-based enterprises nationwide, and just five in Missouri, to earn Gold Level Certification for the 2021-2022 school year and will be recognized during DECA’s International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Ga. 

According to a DECA news release, a school-based enterprise (SBE) is an entrepreneurial operation in a school setting that provides goods and services to meet the needs of the market. SBEs are managed and operated by students as hands-on learning laboratories that integrate National Curriculum Standards in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.

S-C juniors and DECA members Jordan Beard and Lane Simmons led the Tiger Tailgate effort with the assistance of S-C DECA chapter advisor Angie Howard. The SBE at Smith-Cotton has operated for the past four years.

“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.”

In the photo: 
Smith-Cotton High School DECA members are shown outside the Tiger Tailgate, the student-run school store that has earned Gold Level Certification from the national DECA program.