Freshman Alexis Machoka felt pleasantly surprised when she heard her name called as one of next year’s DECA officers, along with sophomore Josh Halper and sophomore Izzi Gilbert Burke.

Machoka said she feels that the younger officers will have the ability to reach the underclassmen that are normally not represented.

“I think it’s necessary to have young leaders as well as older leaders so that voices of all ages are represented,” Machoka said.

According to DECA adviser Sophia Ross, the club hosted an end-of-the-year party to celebrates the club’s achievements May 26, where they announced the new officers.

Ross said the officers are one of the youngest group the club has seen, but contain much promise.

“They are a lot younger from what we typically have as officers, which I am really excited about,” Ross said. “I think they will bring in fresh new ideas and they will really be able to recruit younger students.”

Current officer senior Mikey Segal said the officers’ age allows them to expand their knowledge and experience throughout the rest of their high school career.

“Having younger officers is really good,” Segal said. “They have the ability to spend more than one year in their position and build off of their skills.”

According to Ross, Machoka was very eager to take on her new leadership role as officer and continually showed dedicated throughout the year.

“She’s had a great year,” Ross said. “She’s been involved in everything that you can do with DECA. I’m really excited for her enthusiasm.”

Machoka said she feels humbled to receive the position and inspired to step into her new role in the club.

“Being one of the youngest officers makes me feel really motivated to prove myself,” Machoka said. “Just because I’m young doesn’t make me less capable of leading than someone who’s older.”

According to Ross, the newly elected officers met June 2 to brainstorm ideas of how they will carry out their positions next year.

“I’m excited to hear what their new ideas are,” Ross said. “In their applications, they talked about what their goals are but I want to hear about how they are going to make it happen.”