DECA SUCCESS: Students & sponsor of new business program at Los Lunas High School complete banner year

LOS LUNAS — Juniors Eliana Ordaz and Echo Cannon are both part of the first-ever DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) cohort at Los Lunas High School.

They both say they weren’t sure what they were getting into or how much they would eventually get out of it.

“When Mr. (Rick) Cole came here and he started doing business classes, I took his business management class,” said Ordaz, who served as DECA president this past school year. “He was just kind of asking everyone if they would be interested in joining this business club. I honestly had no idea, but I was just like, ‘Yeah, sign me up!’”

Cannon, who was vice president of Leadership in 2024-25, said her experience was “kind of the same.”

“He just kind of told us, there were these opportunities and we could grow it in the school and (have a) chance to learn more about what we want to do (in the future) and help others. So, that’s what got me interested,” Cannon said.

DECA sponsor and business/science teacher Rick Cole came out of retirement to return to the Los Lunas Schools, first as a construction trades instructor at Century High School, the district’s alternative high school.

In the meantime, the business program at Los Lunas High School, which Cole had been a part of during his first tenure at LLHS, fell off the map. In 2023, Cole returned to Los Lunas High to revive the business program and more.

Though Los Lunas High had a thriving business program until the mid-2010s, the school had never had a DECA program in its history. Cole said he was ready to change that when given the opportunity.

“They asked me back and I thought, ‘Oh, man, here’s where I can make something happen,’” he said, “I just knew that DECA would be something that would succeed here.”

Cole offered to start up the first-ever Los Lunas High DECA program as a proposal when he interviewed to transfer to LLHS.

“I said, ‘Hey, not only will I teach business, I want to start a DECA program, and let’s put Los Lunas High School on the map when it comes to business education,’” he remembered. “And they agreed.”

Cole said the administration at LLHS got the resources to start DECA in addition to the business curriculum necessary to teach the classes leading up to the 2023-24 school year and “things got off to a great start.”

A great start might be an understatement.

In 2024, LLHS DECA began with 140 students in the club and sent one student, James Kilcullen, to the 2024 DECA International Career and Development Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

In 2025, the Los Lunas High chapter had slightly fewer members overall but sent 78 students to the state DECA conference, with 27 finalists and seven finishing in the top 3 — Killcullen, a senior this year, was the school’s lone first-place finalist.

In its second year in 2025, LLHS DECA sent nine students to the international conference, held in Orlando, Fla. — Kilcullen, Ordaz, Lynae Hands, Brian Merloss, Derek Montoya, Isabella Ortiz, Madison Pruitt, Ruben Rosas and Jocelyn Villegas. Killcullen and Ortiz both earned Top 10 percent Seal honors.

“The competitions are huge at DECA,” Ordaz said. “(This year) we had way more people actually qualify for state, and we had nine people qualify for nationals, as last year we only had one person qualify for nationals.”

Cannon, who competed at the state DECA conference, said she chose a challenge that was very much outside her comfort zone, a finance project she worked on with fellow student Alyssa Campos.

“(We) didn’t do a hands-on project, but I did partner with (Alyssa) and she was great,” Cannon said. “We kind of evaluated finance situations. We did really good and qualified for the first round at state. I learned so much about finance because that was something that we both struggled in.”

Ordaz’s project with fellow DECA members, Madison “Maddie” Pruitt and Lynae Hands, was a Business Solutions Project with Los Lunas confections business Teri’s Sweet Garden.

“We just cold-called them,” said Ordaz. “We picked Teri’s Sweet Garden as our main focus for the competition. We were like, ‘Hey, like we’re doing this project. Can you talk to us about your business and the issues that you see with your business?’”

The trio wrote up a 20-page report and turned that into a 10-minute presentation for the DECA competitions, said Ordaz.

“Overall, we talked about what we learned and just the main goals that we had for them,” she said. “It was a huge learning experience for sure.”

At home, DECA students started up a store on campus in 2024-25, which includes Slushie, ice cream and pretzel machines as well as snacks galore.

Ordaz said the first-year members also set the goal of having more people attend the state and national conferences.

“It’s honestly crazy how much our program has grown,” Ordaz said . We didn’t have a DECA store. Not many people were in DECA. Not many people participated in competitions but, this year, we had way more people participate. Honestly, everyone at the school kind of knows what DECA is now.”

Cole, who will be a full-time business teacher in the 2025-26 school year, said LLHS is adding a second business teacher to help out to add to the business program and, hopefully, get more students involved in DECA.

“As you heard from the students, this year things really took off, which was great,” Cole said.

“We’re also going to start a second store. We have a food store (now), but we’re going to start our own specialty print shop on campus.

“So things are definitely on the up and up,” he continued. “It’s been very rewarding and very worthwhile to teach business and sponsor DECA. The kids have really bought into it, and we’ve just been able to do a lot of neat things”

All three — Cole, Cannon and Ordaz — said they look forward to growing DECA in the 2025-26 school year. Cole would like to see DECA chapters established at other Valencia County high schools in the near future as well.

“Hopefully, by us doing something here in Los Lunas High, the other (county) schools will become interested,” he said. “It could be a part of learning at every Valencia County high school. I would love to see that happen in the next five years.”

Cole said he can also see the influence of DECA going beyond the school setting.

“(Students) can learn the basics in DECA and then kind of take it on themselves,” he said. “Right there, that’s leadership for the county, you know, for the next ... 25 years. That would be great, potentially, to see a lot of homegrown talent from Valencia County just continue to lead the county.”

• Sam Akin - International Business Plan (Finalist)
• Noah Aragon - Food Marketing (Finalist)
• Adrian Baeza - Principles of Entrepreneurship (Finalist)
• Dominique Benson - Sports and Entertainment Operations Research
• Alyssa Campos - Team Financial Decisions (Finalist)
• Echo Cannon - Team Financial Decisions (Finalist)
• Samuel DeTamble - Sports and Entertainment Marketing
• Nathaniel Gallegos - Principles of Entrepreneurship
• Lynae Hands - Business Solutions Project (Finalist - 2nd Place)
• Haylen Johnson - Sports and Entertainment Marketing
• James Kilcullen - Financial Consulting (Finalist - 1st Place)
• Donovan Lucero - Automotive Sales and Service Marketing (Finalist)
• Acadyn Maestas - Principles of Entrepreneurship (Finalist)
• Malaki Maestas- Sports and Entertainment Marketing
• Gabriel Manzano - Principles of Entrepreneurship (Finalist)
• Mareli Martinez - Apparel and Accessories Marketing
• Dylan Mego - Principles of Business Administration
• Brian Merlos - Sports & Entertainment Operations Research (Finalist - 3rd)
• Giselle Montes-CastilloFranchise Business Plan (Finalist)
• Derek Montoya - Sports & Entertainment Operations Research (Finalist - 3rd)
• Eliana Ordaz - Business Solutions Project (Finalist - 2nd)
• Isabella Ortiz - Sports and Entertainment Marketing (Finalist - 3rd)
• Nailyn Perez-Golindo - Sports and Entertainment Marketing
• Madison Pruitt - Business Solutions Project (Finalist - 2nd)
• Mateo Rodriguez - Virtual Business Challenge
• Ruben Rosas - Sports & Entertainment Operations Research (Finalist - 3rd)
• Adrian Shannon - Principles of Human Resources Management
• Alec Smith - Automotive Sales and Entertainment Marketing (Finalist)
• Raymond Stafford - Accounting Applications (Finalist)
• Gregory Trujillo - Principles of Business Administration
• Victoria Trujillo - Chapter Leadership Delegate
• Staisha Venzor - Start-Up Business Plan (Finalist)
• Jocelyn Villegas - Integrated Marketing Plan - Product (Finalist)