In 1996, then 22-year-old marketing teacher Mercedes Rasmussen walked through SM East’s glass double doors with a plan.
Teach for five years and then find a job in the business sector.
But let's just say Rasmussen's five-year-plan didn't go how she'd intended.
“I think my students keep me young,” Rasmussen said. “They make me laugh every single day when I come to work and put smiles on my face, and they just kind of give me that little pep in my step that I think I need. And so I don't want to say I worry about that, but I know that that will be a part of my life that I miss.”
After 30 years of DECA trips, pressing t-shirts for the SM East vs. Rockhurst game and building one of the top business departments in the state, according to Marketing Teacher Amanda Doane, Rasmussen is retiring and pursuing a job outside education.
When Rasmussen first arrived at SM East, there was one marketing class with 10 kids and DECA sounded like a chemistry buzzword, not a program SM East offered. That year, Rasmussen only took six kids to compete in the state tournament and one to internationals.
This year, 150 students flocked in buses to the State Career Development Conference at Kansas State University, Rasmussen’s alma mater. Over 20 of those students qualified for the International Career Development Conference — the most of any school in Kansas.
Doane credits Rasmussen with creating one of the first DECA programs in the state.
“[Rasmussen] started DECA in the state of Kansas,” Doane said, “She was the first one to get it going in this area, and she grew it by herself from having just a handful of students.”
SM East currently has three full-time marketing teachers and over 175 official DECA members, making it the largest program in the state for the past five years.
Now, the marketing department teaches 3/4 of the junior class every single year, according to Rasmussen.
Over her 30 years at East, one of Rasmussen’s favorite parts of her teaching career is teaching siblings and even the parents of East students.
“I can't count the amount of families that have gone through East that I have taught,” Rasmussen said. “My class isn't a class that kids have to take to graduate. And so it's like any business, right? It's word of mouth to get people in and make people want to buy into what you're selling, and so word of mouth and people continuing to do that.”
Rasmussen taught 2024 alumna Caroline Reiser and Caroline’s younger sister, current junior Coco Reiser. Rasmussen’s advice, wisdom and ability to teach life skills past marketing have been highly impactful on the two, according to Coco.
“My sister took marketing and it helped her really figure out [all] the stuff [that] she's doing now to help her career in the future, and [develop] that foundation, thanks to Mercedes,” Coco said. “That gives me a lot of confidence and I think that has given my sister and I so many opportunities that will be really, really beneficial for our future.”
Next year, according to Rasmussen, Doane will take over the DECA program and continue Rasmussen’s legacy at SM East. Doane will also manage the Student Store, a project that Rasmussen evolved from selling candy in a cramped storage closet by the cafeteria into one of the most popular and profitable student-run businesses at SM East.
Columbia Brew, a student body favorite for taking a break from schoolwork, is being passed down to marketing teacher Mallory Dittemore. Rasmussen said that the coffee shop started as a DECA project where three students partnered with the Roasterie Coffee Company and the SM East’s Special Education Department to sell coffee and train students in workplace skills for after graduation.
Now, the coffee shop gets hundreds of applications from juniors eager to volunteer and remains yet another program that never would’ve existed without Rasmussen, according to Doane.
Doane plans to continue running DECA and the Student Store the same way Rasmussen has and then incorporate “her own flavor” after 3-4 years. In the meantime, Doane constantly talks with Rasmussen, picking up information she needs for next year and soaking up the “nuggets of wisdom” Rasmussen always has to offer.
“We walk out of school together every single day,” Doane said. “It's kind of a symbolic thing. She's mentored me for really intensely, for like, nine years, as we've been working closely together. It's a gigantic, unfillable hole she’s leaving.”
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