Nora Keele
Personal Mission
I will fully commit myself to creating innovative resources and experiences for Wisconsin DECA members while elevating the brand's image with new and existing business professionals in order to ultimately better the organization.
Academically Prepared
Freshman year is when I began taking Intro-to-Marketing and consequently, dove head first into DECA. It is also the year I toured my dream college, Columbia University in New York City. Prior to my visit, I researched what anyone would: student faculty ratio, housing options, tuition (woah), and most importantly the acceptance rate, one of the most daunting numbers I have encountered at a mere 3%. This past year 60,374 students applied and 2,255 students were accepted and many other colleges are no different. Ever since I stepped foot on that campus I have been trying my hardest to become that 3%, but that comes with challenges, many of which DECA has enabled me to overcome.
Time Management
As a junior I currently participate in the following clubs and extracurriculars: Master Singers (an auditioned a cappella group that tours area businesses and schools) Key Club, National Honor Society, Link Crew (a mentorship program for incoming freshman and transfer students), piano and voice lessons (working towards Solo Ensemble in the spring) varsity swim (throughout the fall and club swim in the offseason), and dance at the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet. Including my challenging class-load and additional activities it can be quite overwhelming to balance it all and procrastination is my greatest weakness.
​
If the last two years on the Wausau West DECA officer team has taught me anything it is the importance of prioritizing, planning, and organization to accomplish tasks in a timely manner. These skills are key to performing the entirety of my activities to the best of my ability. More importantly it gives me the skills to succeed in a college setting without the assistance of a parent or teacher, but rather my own accountability.
​
Delegation and
Communication
A fact of life is that I will have to work in numerous different groups, in different settings, with vastly different people. My current and past leadership in DECA has shown me how to do so effectively and efficiently.
​
Being the perfectionist that I am, I have struggled with collaboration and delegating tasks. I had the, "If you want it done right do it yourself" mentality. However, it has been made clear to me that in order to accomplish something of size and importance I need the help of others. As a chapter officer I have begun to use this skill to create a greater positive impact on my school and community. In addition, I have noticed the value of constant communication in order to eliminate issues and confusion prior to, during, and after an event/project.
Opportunities
When entering high school I thought I was already prepared for college and beyond. At the time I had ‘decided’ I would be a surgeon. My path was concrete, high school, college, medical school, residency, fellowship, and then work, work, and more work. I would take classes only to reach this goal, not for enjoyment. In fact, that was the sole reason I joined DECA, for my resume. However, the past three years in DECA has grown and prepared me for my future academically more than ever before. It has helped to break down those concrete boundaries and allowed me to open up my mind to career paths that I would have never considered. Intro-to-Marketing sparked my interest in the business and marketing field which takes intelligence but also allows for creativity. Every day is different, personalized, and so rewarding. For these reasons, I will be pursuing the Marketing field, on what level I do not know, but I cannot wait to find out.
Community Oriented
Regardless of the stereotypical definition, DECA is so much more than a group of business and marketing students. In fact, I would argue that our involvement within the community is almost more impactful in everyday life. From fundraisers, like Make-A-Wish, to volunteer opportunities, like Trick or Can, DECA has exposed me to life beyond the walls of the high school. I have seen the large impacts little actions can have on others and learned the importance of social responsibility in the business world. Despite popular belief, these businesses have the best resources to serve the community and DECA is a perfect example of doing so. Whether it be collecting trash off the side of the road or working to raise money for young cancer patients my passion for others has grown and all thanks to DECA.
Refugee Support & Peer Tutoring English Learners
With the current state of the world Wausau has become an asylum for refugees from nearly every continent. With the help of New Beginnings local families, like my own, have been paired with incoming refugees. The past three years I have gotten the chance to connect with a family from Afghanistan and another from Uganda. It was eye-opening to talk with (over google translate at first) a girl, the same age as myself, whose brother was banned from leaving Afghanistan at the same chaotic airports I had watched on the News. I couldn't comprehend how a 17 year old boy from Africa who had been born in and grew up in a refugee camp could now be expected to take classes in a language he couldn't even understand. Nevertheless, I took joy in teaching them and learning even more in return.
​
Aside from my roles with refugee families in the community, I have also helped to mentor within my school. Every Friday, for the entirety of this past semester, I have spent 40 minutes teaching a junior boy from Laos how to speak English. How to teach a 16 year old new consonants, words with more than one syllable (coming from a language where this doesn't exist), and even words like the, where, or human has been challenging. Apparently my childhood board games like Uno and Guess Who? can help.
Mission Trip & Nursery Volunteer In My Home Church
One of the main ways I volunteer in my community and in communities throughout the world is through my church. Two summers ago, I was given the opportunity to travel with a team of roughly 20 students to London for a Mission Trip. Although, not a developing country lacking food and shelter, this location had just as much need. Throughout my week long trip I worked to renovate a church well in need of makeover. After painting for 8 hours straight over the span of 3 days we were able to provide a much improved church for the people of that community.
​
Although I have not traveled internationally recently, I have continued to support my church and community. One Sunday a month I volunteer in the Nursery so that the parents of young children can enjoy the sermon. Every thanksgiving our youth group packs meals for impoverished families in Wausau. This fall I got the chance to pack meals for families much further from Wausau through Feed my Starving Children. Finally, during the holiday season I have had the chance to donate to Operation Christmas Child. I take joy in reinvesting time and talents in my own community and this is a main way I can do it.
Professionally Responsible
As a seventeen year old I have found it difficult to manage a traditional job due to the number of other activities that currently occupy my time. However, they do say the best boss to have is yourself and I would have to agree, considering I am the owner of Ella's Bakery, my own out-of-home baking business. In 2020, the year the world shut down, I began to explore one of my passions, baking. At the time, I had only baked with pre-packaged mixes and to be honest, it didn't look great. Not to mention that I didn't have any of the skills it took to run a business, I had barely even heard of DECA. Though, after multiple marketing classes, three years worth of DECA, and lots of practice I have grown my personal bakery to a point where it is successful but also flexible for my busy schedule.
Customer Service and Communications
When in a marketing class at Wausau West you are required to work the SBE, West-side Connection as part of your grade. Through this experience, as well as my class work I was able to develop the necessary skills to communicate with my customers in a professional environment. Using these skills, I handle to bookings, inquiries, and any other consumer touchpoint. By doing this I am able to leave the impression of a well-organized and reliable business. In the past two years, I have begun receiving orders from people I do not know personally, and they are often shocked to find out I am a Junior in high school considering the high-quality service at such an affordable price.
Marketing
and Promotions
When I first started taking custom orders, my consumer base was solely my family and close friends. At the very beginning I was selling door to door every Friday to my neighbors (hence my original slogan "Ella's Bakery a Great Start to Your Weekend"). However, as my business steadily grew I realized my target audience had grew along with it and texting with my personal number was not longer going to cut is for marketing and promotion. So, I came to the decision to design and pay for my own website that would display my previous work, allow consumers to book events, create a space for online orders and payments, and create awareness about my social media accounts. Speaking of social media I manage an Instagram as well as a Facebook account for Ella's Bakery (names after my younger sister). This entire process was made so much easier thanks to the multiple marketing classes I was enrolled in my Freshman and Sophomore year. Even more so, the decision itself to pursue this business further was due to the many guest speakers in my Intro-to-Marketing class who presented about their journey beginning a successful self-made business.
​
Instagram - @ellasbakery01
Facebook - Ella's Bakery
Event Planning and Exection
A large responsibility of being a chapter officer is organizing social and community service events for members. The many event planning worksheets, emails to vendors, and social media posts I made for DECA events enabled me to pull-off Cookies for Kids. A decorating class catered to kids, in which a large portion of the profits is donated to a local charity supporting kids. For this I first had to connect with a local business owner willing to host my event. After picking a date, the event was put on the website and promoted online. After all the slots were filled I had to bake dozens of cookies (6 per kid) and the frosting to decorate them, develop step by step instructions for the children, and organize all the materials needed including piping tips, offset spatulas, etc. When the day finally came it was hectic, but a hit and I am proud to say I have another class coming up this next month. I can also confidently say I would not have been able to achieve this without my experience from DECA.
Experienced Leader
I am beyond grateful for the positions I have served in the past two years. As well as the many challenges that have arisen leading to loads of personal growth. One challenge was the transition from being a member who participated events to the one behind the scenes leading the events from start to end. A fundraiser in particular that required me to posses all the skills of an experienced leader was our Catches for a Cause event in which we raised money for a Make-A-Wish Wisconsin.
Generating Ideas
The summer after my freshman year of high school was when I first got to attend our Chapter Officer Workshop in June. While there, our team's main objective is drafting a detailed program of work to follow throughout the year. When discussing our annual Make-A-Wish fundraiser the very obvious basketball game or homeroom miracle minute came to mind; however, we realized that the sport with the most attendance has the least fundraisers we organized a series of carnival games and a miracle minute to take place at our very own West football game called, Catches for a Cause
​
With the new role of Co-President came new responsibilities regarding this event. The idea had already been outlined from the year prior but a portion of the event needed to be reworked around the new child we were sponsoring. Therefore I had to reach out to our local representative as early as late June. After many emails back and forth and an online form, our chapter finally connected with Everly. I quickly sent a letter over to the family introducing ourselves, explaining our rough plans for the events, and requesting to learn more about Everly. Once this was accomplish our team was prepared to move on in the planning process.
Planning and Preparation
As a VP I was tasked with one to prepare and run: Pick-A-Pop. For $1 fans could pick a dum-dum. Then based on the color drawn on the bottom of the sucker they could win a prize. My prep for this game included separating and coloring Dum-Dums. Organizing and calculating the costs of prizes. Coloring a variety of posters and designing a post for social media, all can be seen below. In addition, I designed a detailed trifold based on what we knew about Axyten (the child we sponsored during the fall of 2022). This way those who were donating knew where or rather whom the money was going to. On the day of I showed up to the field about 30 min early to set-up and run the event.
​
As a Co-President (fall of 2023) I was less focused on my few tasks and more the success of the entire group. Beginning in August I wrote up Agendas and organized meetings to ensure each officer knew what to do, how to do it, and by what time. It was helpful to have run this even the year before because now I could avoid many of the problems we encountered in the fall of 2022. At this same time I contacted the family to invite them to the event. Unfortunately, they could not attend but I was still able to give multiple updates. Similar to the year prior I was worked to put together and run my game and craft a personalized poster all about Everly. Unlike the year prior I needed to spread news of the event to local elementary schools and the community in general. To do so my Co-President and I recorded and informational video. This video was played for students before the event and at the event itself shortly before the miracle minute. I also wrote a press release informing numerous stations about the event.
Axyten - 2022
Everly - 2023
Execution
Sophomore year I worked the Pick-A-Pop booth throughout the first and second quarter. I found it to be extremely popular with the children at the event which was our goal. After the event I helped to pack up the games, tables, prizes, etc. and deliver them back to the table.
​
Junior year I had a number of new tasks throughout the event. While setting up my booth a local news reporter was setting up her own. I began the event with an interview discussing our objective which was to come together to support a young member of our community and make her wish come true! Days after the event I reported our totals to the Make-A-Wish organization and to to Everly's family. I communicated with the mother to organize a meeting time in which we could gift Everly her check along with a few other gifts. Finally I wrote our quarterly business partners update including the success of the event.
