Doing it All: PSEO, College, and DECA

I love that I have such a wonderful opportunity to reach out to my fellow DECA members and others!

First off, I hope you are all having an amazing summer. Can you believe we are halfway through the year already?

To jump right into it, there is something that makes me very different from the other state officers this year. I am a state officer as a PSEO student. That’s right, I am helping lead Minnesota Collegiate DECA while I am in high school. I think it’s crazy too, but hey, you guys got to vote.

I chose to do PSEO my sophomore year of high school. The biggest reason why I made this decision was that I did not feel challenged enough at a small school with limited opportunities to express myself and what I was good at. I decided to do something about it and applied to be full-time PSEO at Southeast Technical College. The rest is history.

I finished my high school credits early my senior year, so there came a point where I had to decide on a program at Southeast Tech since my general credits were finished as well. When my college advisor asked me if I was interested in sales I was almost offended. Me? A saleswoman? I think I can do better than that. I decided to take a few classes in that area since they were free to me and I wanted to see what this joke was about.

I instantly fell in love with the Sales Management program. Not only are salespeople one of the highest paid out there, but I get to be my own boss. I jumped into DECA as fast as I could and surprised myself by becoming Vice President of my chapter at Southeast Tech. DECA allowed me to apply everything in those never-ending textbooks to real life situations. That is a priceless opportunity, and it really gives you a taste of what you are getting yourself into.

I graduated in the Spring of 2016 with my AAS in Sales Management and received my high school diploma shortly after that. I will be doing an internship in the fall as well and will start my career from there. I do not feel deprived of the “high school experience”, because going against tradition and setting myself apart gave me a promising future. I am forever thankful for PSEO and DECA.

Your Southern Region Vice President,

Deanna Wolf