Hamilton southeastern high school is proud to send many students to the state competition and even international competitions in the Deca organization. Decca helps students shape their future through building leadership, team bonding, finance, marketing, operations, entrepreneurship skills and many more.

This past year for Hamilton southeastern Decca was a special one, a new milestone was achieved as a student was named Indiana DECA state president for team 81, Vihaan Venkatram. Vihan is a sophomore at Hamilton southeastern and he didn’t begin with tons of years of experience or a master plan to become president, in fact he just started Decca this last year.

Vihaan had interest in business already so when I asked him how did he and why did he join Decca he explained he wanted to try something new so why not join it He took a chance on being uncomfortable doing something out of his comfort zone, something that was unexpected.

Vihan was like anyone else entering his first district competition, it felt chaotic to him and was very unfamiliar, he admitted he had no idea what he was doing but he turned it into excitement. Vihaan ended up doing really well at that district as he advanced to the state level competition where things only grew exponentially from there. he finished the year strong at the state conference and did something special.

Vihaan saw the e-mail about the state officer position and saw an opportunity not just for himself but for everyone around him. Deca has given so much to him he wanted to give more back. At the 2026 state conference for DECA, Vihaan went on stage and gave his presidential speech. he read the room perfectly, it was a late night, and everybody wanted to go back into their hotel room and get some rest for the early morning.

“I’m going to keep this short” were the first words out of Vihaan’s mouth. Right then and there you could tell that Vihaan was the front runner for the next DECA president. he didn’t need a flashy speech, he didn’t need 10 minutes on stage saying what everyone else is going to say, he read the room and gave the people what they wanted, he showed leadership by doing so.

Vihan had to wait a whole day to figure out if he was going to be the next president and the wait was intense, he stated he spent hours going back and forth in his mind for one moment. When it was time to hear the results, his heart dropped and his name was called, the conference erupted Hamilton southeastern was chanting his name as the cheers and the applause from the audience while he walked up to stage, he made Hamilton southeastern history that day.

Now as state president Vihaan has a clear vision on what he wants to do with Indiana Decca, he wants to unify Indiana Decca, create more opportunities with more mock competitions and workshops and to build stronger connections across the state.

There’s only one message that Vihaan wants others to take away from this and it’s simple, just go for it! you don’t have to be the flashiest person out there to get what you want but if you put your head down and work towards it you will see success in one way or another.