Before joining DECA, Cepeda had considered doing something STEM related, but at the urging of entrepreneurship teacher, Ted Dinicola, she joined the organization her freshman year and soon after qualified for state competitions. She hasn’t stopped pushing forward ever since.
When the opportunity came to run for one of the Florida DECA vice president positions, Cepeda jumped at the chance while holding the role for vice president in her school chapter. Cepeda beat out seven other students for the position, a feat for the underdog school that is among one of the smaller chapters in the district.
Cepeda is the second vice president in the organization’s history to represent Miami-Dade County and the first from HML. She is now one of the six faces that grace the front page of the Florida DECA website.
“A majority of the other students running came from Broward where the chapters are more established, have more members, and have more money,” said Cepeda. “So I was an unfamiliar face and had to really push my campaign forward to be noticed. I wanted to run for VP because I knew I could make DECA better and give back to a club that has given me so much.”
Cepeda began campaigning alongside two campaign managers, Emily Alayeto and Victoria Estopinan. Cepeda summarized her goals to improve DECA under her leadership for VP down to one sentence: “I want to increase membership involvement.”
Her plans to make this goal come to fruition include team training drills and networking, such as District-wide picnics and barbecues for members to connect with one another and enhance communication across chapters, increasing study resources, a monthly emailed newsletter and a DECA member of the month.
Cepeda decided on soccer for her campaign theme to make these goals accessible to members. “I’ve been on the soccer team since sophomore year, I play defense,” said Cepeda. “I realized, actually on my way to practice, that soccer is all about communication and my main point in the campaign was communication. I also wanted to make sure the theme was genuine and was not some facade about being a business professional. I wanted it to be honest and for people to know that DECA, like soccer, is about teamwork. All the players in soccer have to work together and coordinate because you can’t win a game by yourself.”
“I couldn’t have done this without Mr. Dinicola, Emily, and Victoria, they pushed me and motivated me through the times we hit roadblocks with fundraising,” said Cepeda. “There were a lot of things to overcome but they helped me through it all.”
Since Cepeda is representing and running from a Miami-Dade County school, she and her campaign managers had to abide by a number of regulations and strict policies for fundraising that the other candidates, who hail from Broward County, did not.
Estopinan handled finances and Alayeto designed graphics. Together under Cepeda’s leadership they planned, managed, financed and produced campaign strategies and props such as buttons, frisbees, banners and flyers, to hand out at the conference from their booth where Cepeda recited a speech from dawn until 4 p.m. After campaigning ended, voting delegates congregated in different rooms where Cepeda and the other candidates rotated every five minutes to answer questions. At 6 p.m. the delegates cast their votes and the winners were announced the following morning at the closing ceremonies.
“When they announced my name as vice president I started crying,” said Cepeda. “I put so much work into this and sacrificed so much. Since we are the underdogs from a smaller chapter we felt the pressure to over campaign. I was ecstatic when I saw Mr. Dinicola dancing and jumping up and down, and our chapter, about 30 people taking up the first two rows, all stood up and started chanting my name as I walked up the stage. It was the best moment of my life.”