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.

Christopher Young, CAE, Chief Program Officer at DECA Inc. says, “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. These DECA members are practicing important workplace readiness skills while preparing for college and careers.”

Photo (Courtesy of Smith-Cotton DECA): 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.