New Mexico's next entrepreneurs are already in the building.

DECA is where students learn marketing, finance, hospitality and management by actually competing at it. At Manzano, students do that every year, starting at districts and going as far as they can get.

Most members join because a friend brought them to a meeting. Within a semester they're pricing products, building marketing plans and reading balance sheets.

Districts, then state, then internationals if they make it. Every round puts a student across the table from someone who does this for a living and judges the work the way a client would. Getting there — registration, travel, lodging — is what we fund.

They can present to a room, they have real competition results on a résumé, and they know professionals in this city by name. Some come back years later to judge.