The Agency is a professional learning environment where students develop real-world competency through authentic marketing and communications work — real clients, real deadlines, real feedback, real portfolios. Powered by The Agency Process™.
Not rules — principles. Education here mimics worldly experience, and the Waypoints are the fixes we navigate by: mid-project, mid-setback, mid-hard-conversation.
The RM Marketing & Communications Agency is not a simulation. Students hold real titles, take real briefs, and ship real work for real clients — including a signature literacy nonprofit, campus partners, and local businesses. Everything flows through six specialized departments coordinated by a student leadership team.
Specialized roles mirror a real agency — students find where they belong.
From research to reflection, every campaign follows the same rigor.
Slippers for Stories — a year-round campaign with real community impact.
Athletics, band, robotics, nonprofits, local businesses — the roster grows.
Each department mirrors an actual agency function — with a student lead, a mission, and a portfolio of deliverables. Students rotate through departments during onboarding, then commit to a home for the year while cross-training on live projects.
Every student in this room is a DECA member. DECA is not an after-school club bolted onto the course — it is the competitive arm of the work we do every day, and it is where the campaigns built here go to be judged by people who do this for a living.
Arizona DECA was chartered by the Arizona Department of Education and is celebrating 66 years of preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs across the state. Red Mountain competes inside that system.
Role-plays put a student in front of a judge with a business problem and ten minutes to solve it. Written events are full marketing plans — the same shape as the campaign work in Units 3, 6 and 11 of this course.
District, then State, then International. Arizona runs District and State Career Development Conferences, plus Fall Leadership, Camp DECA and the Red Zone Leadership Conference through the year.
Leadership, ethical decision-making and service — taught by putting students in front of real problems and real judges, not by talking about it. Scholarships and alumni networks sit on the far end of it.
Chapter roster for 2026–27 is being built. Membership opens to every student in Marketing I and Marketing II. Competition dates are published as the chapter calendar is confirmed.
Arizona DECA → DECA Inc. →
Sixteen years inside a public high school classroom. Thirty-plus years in education and coaching. A doctorate in sport & performance psychology. An active practitioner still building in the field he teaches — AI-augmented marketing systems, publishing engines, and micro-brands across athletics, education, and consumer categories.
The Agency is what happens when a career educator with active industry credentials builds a CTE program the way a real agency would build itself: with squads, with clients, with campaigns that ship, with feedback that sharpens the work, and with young leaders learning that marketing done right is stewardship in disguise.
"Education should mimic worldly experience."
Dr. Lewis serves as the agency's Director, organizer, evaluator, mentor, encourager, and quality supervisor. He guides students through authentic professional challenges while protecting their safety, well-being, and opportunity for growth. His role is not to remove every obstacle — it's to help students learn how to navigate them.
Every project inside the agency maps to Arizona's CTE Marketing program of study (52.1801.00). Students earn a portfolio, a leadership record, and — when eligible — DECA-competition-ready case studies and a work-based-learning credential.
Slippers for Stories is the anchor. Once the agency is humming, we open the roster to campus partners and community organizations that need real marketing help — and we scale into a program that other Arizona CTE schools benchmark against.
This is the room where the brand gets built — real briefs, real deadlines, real client work.
The Agency connects community organizations with enthusiastic student talent working under adult supervision. Our students bring energy, fresh ideas, and a genuine desire to serve — and every project is guided, reviewed, and quality-checked by a credentialed director. When you partner with us, you help develop the next generation of professionals while your organization gets real marketing and communications support.
Neighborhood groups, events, and causes that want a hand telling their story to the community.
Local businesses looking for marketing support while investing in the students who live in their community.
Mission-driven organizations that need communications help to reach and grow the people they serve.
Campus programs, teams, and departments that deserve professional-quality promotion of their work.
Organizations ready for a defined engagement with clear goals, deliverables, and a project timeline.
Our students are developing professionals. We do not promise unrealistic results or guaranteed returns. We promise to listen, communicate, work diligently, respond to feedback, and continue improving.
Many introductory and community-based services may be provided without a traditional agency fee, depending on project scope, student capacity, and educational value.
For interview follow-up, curriculum questions, sponsorship inquiries, or a Slippers for Stories donation — every path starts with a conversation.