Kara Winch, a marketing major from Twin Lakes, was one of 31 students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater who were individually recognized as the university took home the Wisconsin Collegiate DECA Chapter of the Year award for the third straight time.
Winch earned the following honors at the competition: First place, sports marketing.
As a chapter, UW-Whitewater also claimed the Community Service Award and earned the Chapter Passport, highlighting the organization’s commitment to leadership, professional development, and community engagement. Chapter president Bella Biever, a communication major from Stewartville, Minnesota, was selected as the Student of the Year.
Frank Lanko, faculty advisor for the UWW chapter stated, “The DECA students who signed up for competition this year have actually been working toward their competitive events the entire academic year. Our prepared event teams started working on their projects in the fall and continued through winter break in order to have a finished product in time for the state competition. These teams, along with all of our other competitors in individual and team case study events, went through a lot of practice sessions – rehearsing their presentations with our board members and myself and participating in a ‘dress rehearsal’ prep day that we hosted in early February where everyone presented their events in front of alumni and employer judges to receive practice, coaching, and feedback.”
He continued, “As we look forward to the International Career Development Conference in San Francisco in early April, the students are continuing their competition preparation – revising their written projects based on judges’ feedback from the state conference and reviewing additional sample case studies as well.”
“All of these events give our students an opportunity to take what they are learning in their classes and apply the knowledge to real-world case studies and competitive events (designing advertising campaigns, new business proposals, writing detailed financial statement analysis, and competing in case studies that pull from knowledge gained throughout their academic careers),” said Frank Lanko.
UW-Whitewater’s DECA chapter, the largest in Wisconsin, is housed in the university’s College of Business and Economics, the state’s largest business school.
To learn more about UW-Whitewater’s DECA chapter, visit uwwdeca.com.
