Guest post by Sophia R

Luke Border, a former marketing and DECA member who graduated in 2023, made a huge impact on our program. He was our Orange DECA President, an ICDC qualifier in his junior and senior years and even scored in the top 10 internationally on the entrepreneurship exam at ICDC. While at Orange he was a visionary leader who implemented changes in the marketing and DECA program.

What is one piece of advice you would give to DECA students at OOHS?

Figure out what you like and you want to do. Not what other people think you should do.  As you start to grow in your careers, and especially if you decide to go to college, there’s going to be a lot of noise, and a feel from those around you that there are certain paths that are “correct” or “better”.  I promise that is not the case. There’s a million things you can do in life, and at the end of the day the thing you are going to be the happiest and most successful doing is the thing that you enjoy and are truly interested or passionate about. Also bonus advice, learn how to manage your time.  I know everyone says this and it seems like “oh yeah once I graduate high school I’ll figure it out” but seriously good time management and staying on top of things is so important and it makes the rest of your life so much better as someone who was terrible at this coming out of college please take the time to learn time management and organization it is an invaluable skill.

How do you think your experience with DECA helped you in life?

 DECA helped me practice and improve my speaking skills, as well as on the spot ideation and presenting.  This has been helpful in my career outlook and recruiting efforts, as consulting is a field I’m interested in, and DECA events mirror the casing portion of the consulting interview process very closely. Also, DECA let me hangout and talk with G everyday.  Having her as an advisor and mentor was incredibly helpful; to all of you in the class right now don’t take this opportunity for granted. 

What is your favorite DECA memory?

That’s a tough one, so many good memories. Working the orange-out football game my senior year was a ton of fun.  It was so cool to see that people actually wanted what we were selling, and that there in fact were growth opportunities. Also just a super fun and energetic environment and I was with my friends how could it not be a great night.  Obviously, ICDC as a whole is a super cool experience.  Specifically though the aquarium and World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta were incredible.  Not sure where ICDC is this year but if you get the chance to go and it is in Atlanta, highly recommend going.  More broadly though, not just a specific event, but being able to see the store improve and grow was really neat.  And even now after I’m a couple years removed from DECA seeing that it keeps getting better, and knowing others like me and my classmates are both passionate about DECA and getting as much out of it as we did is awesome. 

What has been your journey after graduating from Orange?

I am now a second-year student at The Ohio State University studying Data Analytics.  On campus I am involved in Buckeye Undergraduate Consulting Club (BUCC) – for which I’m an incoming co-president next semester.  I’m also starting with Buckeye Leadership Fellows (BLF) and Fisher Emerging Consultants (FEC) next semester, and I’m super excited for both opportunities!  In terms of professional experience, this past summer I interned at Worthington Enterprises as a Data Analytics intern. It was an absolutely wonderful experience, the people were amazing, and I learned so much. Summer 2025 I’ll be headed out to Massachusetts as a finance intern for Johnson & Johnson, and I couldn’t be more excited!

We are very thankful for Luke’s time to conduct this interview and Mrs Gellenbeck, our advisor, would like to close with these memories of Luke…

“Luke Border was one of the BEST students and leaders I have gotten to know in my 20 years of teaching in Business Education. He was always there to help, willing to take calculated risks, do the hard work and steer our student based enterprise in an upward direction. The year I took over the Marketing+DECA program and school store was one of overwhelming change…. but Luke’s calm demeanor and confident decisions helped us to successfully ‘fly the plane while we were building it!’ We missed him exponentially when he graduated and I’m so glad to hear he is doing well in college and leadership roles!”