For Nease High juniors Alan Li and Sawyer Wiltfong, being part of DECA at the school is much more than just another club of extra school-related activity.
It is an avenue that creates opportunities and memories that they would not have any other way, the latest of which included the pair teaming up to win in the business solutions project category at the 2023 DECA International Career Development Conference in Orlando on April 25.
The competition factored in an essay portion and a presentation in front of a panel of judges. Li and Wiltfong competed and won against DECA programs representing schools from across the country.
Their project entailed working with the PGA Tour to help build a more sustainable experience that can be adapted and followed at the various tour stops on the schedule.
“Each event is different, and some have tons of sustainability like the Waste Management Tournament in Arizona, which has practically zero carbon footprint, but then there are others that are not quite there,” Wiltfong said.
As part of the project, they got to travel to the Wyndam Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina last year and got to research and go behind the scenes of the tournament to see the inner workings firsthand.
“Our focus was how to make a package where we can have a baseline of sustainable commitment everywhere,” Wiltfong said.
According to Wiltfong, some of the steps taken included creating a team of volunteers to educate attendees about sustainability practices, plus the additions of solar charging stations and the use of aluminum cups at concessions.
Creating a winning project was nearly a year in the making.
“We started on it one month after we came back from Internationals (2022),” Li said. “I saw what it (competition) looked like, and I wanted to jump on it. We started in June, which is super early because the paper wasn’t due until January.”
They were able to formulate their project plan by attending the 2022 Constellation Furyk & Friends PGA Tour Champions event at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville in October.
“We hope to continue working with the PGA Tour to expand this package even more,” Wiltfong said.
The deeper Li and Wiltfong got into the project, the more they realized that the two really complement each other well, and that played a huge role in the overall success of their project.
“I’m definitely the talker in the group and the smiling face at the judge during the presentation,” Li chuckled.
That was coupled with Wiltfong’s handle of the strategic approach of things and when it came to the research and essay portion.
“We learned a lot from each other,” Wiltfong said. “I could have never gone in front of a judge and done as well as we did without being paired with him, and I think that I brought a lot to the table as well.”
