Since freshman year, junior McLean Witte has had an interest in business and entrepreneurship, that’s why when he learned about DECA, there was no reason for him not to take the chance.
McLean Witte has been involved in DECA for two years. Witte was slated by the Nebraska DECA board to run for state president. DECA state was a two day long competition held at the Lincoln Cornhusker Marriott center on March 15-17.
Witte explains how you get selected to run for DECA president.
“Before I even became a candidate I had to go to a screening process on January 27th. At the candidate screening, I had to take a written test that’s about DECA and I also gave a speech to the board of directors for DECA. Before the screening process, they provided me with a study guide for the test and a topic for me to give a speech on. My topic was about how important teamwork is for a team. Once the other candidates and I finished with everything, the board of directors pulled us in one by one and told us what we got slated for. I ended up getting slated for president which is what I ran for during state DECA , and I won,” Witte said.
For Witte, state was, “really easy. I compete in entrepreneurship, and with owning my own business I really know a lot about running one. So everything I had to do during my competition was a piece of cake for me. Campaigning for state president was challenging though because I was really stressed out during the whole process.”
Even though he said state was really easy for him, it wouldn’t be easy for anyone. Gwen Davison is the DECA coach at HHS. She explains the state experience that doesn’t seem so easy for everyone.
“McLean had to give a three minute speech in front of 200 people, and he also had to give a 30 second introduction speech in front of 1000 people,” Davison said.
Mrs. Davidson also says how big of an honor it is that McLean was selected for President. McLean campaigned for two days and everyone voted at the end of day two. Each school has voting delegates based on how big your school is, just like in an actual presidential election, but based on state population. Hastings has four voting delegates, and to put that into perspective, Millard south has 11 voting delegates. Mrs. Davidson says that HHS is, “really blessed because a lot of other school chose to vote for mclean even though most of the bigger sized schools will usually talk to each other and vote together on who they should vote for.”
Being selected president is a huge honor. Since Witte was awarded the title of DECA president, he will be chosen to represent Nebraska in Atlanta, Georgia on April 21-24.
With huge honor comes huge responsibility. To prepare for the running of President, Witte made pamphlet titled “Win With Witte.” This pamphlet contained fun facts about him, his business experience, his most memorable achievements, his vision for DECA, and how to contact him. “With being state president, I have to help run the state officer team, be the middleman between the state officer team and the Nebraska DECA board of directors, run team meetings, implement new ideas, and be the face of Nebraska DECA. I’ll be getting to speak lots at different conferences.”
Witte has always been interested in business. As of now, he is an executive at Athlete Nation, an Online Digital Marketer, and a Nadex stock option trader. DECA has helped him become a part of all of these things. “I actually became involved with Athlete Nation because of DECA. I met another member at districts in January and I started talking to him about what I do with my own business on Amazon. He then told me about the sports media company he just started working for and then I asked him if I could get into contact with his boss, Hunter Radensbladen. Hunter then contacted me later that day and I scheduled an interview with him. At the interview we immediately clicked. We both have the same mentality that we are building legacies and that we can do anything we set our minds to. I am now working with Hunter to help take Athlete Nation to higher places.” In his future, Witte is positive that his future will be positively affected by DECA. “When I’m older I plan on being an entrepreneur. I want to run multiple businesses at one time. I don’t know what those businesses will be yet but I know I will come up with some good ideas. DECA will really teach skills ranging from leadership to public speaking. It will help me become a business leader in the modern world. ”
Looking forward to nationals, there is not a lot of preparing Witte can do.
“For Atlanta I’ll probably just read more on my event. There really isn’t much for me to prepare for since we are only given the information for our event once we arrive.”
HHS sure ‘won with Witte.’
