Amanda Hernandez is a Incoming Analyst at KKR. Colleagues describe her as "I met Amy as a quiet and bright underclassman who stood out academically and became involved in our International student organization, DECA. DECA is committed to developing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in Marketing, Finance, Hospitality, and Management. Wearing one my many hats includes serving Florida DECA as the Assistant Executive Director. During her sophomore year an opportunity presented itself to run for a state-wide student officer position as the Executive Vice President. She caught my attention as I shared as a standout within the classroom and I suggested the idea to her. She was inquisitive and asked many questions and ultimately decided to go for it. I requested that she work with one of my fellow teachers to develop a campaign and goals and to prepare for the candidate exam. All along I knew she was unopposed, but I wanted her to earn this opportunity. After she prepared an platform, campaign strategy, and aced her candidate exam, I told her she was unopposed and would serve as Team 63 Vice President. Her response speaks to her character, a glance with a head tilt, a silent thought or two, then a smile with a shoulder shrug and stating something to the effect of, well that was a great learning experience. WOW! That was so refreshing to hear in lieu of an average young high schooler with a whining response and loss of interest. She hit the ground running as the second in command managing a team of 8 vice presidents. One week after officially assuming the role we went into Covid lockdown. As we all adjusted to our new reality, she focused on being relationships with her vice presidents. As the Spring grew on, I made an announcement that I would be leaving the high school and would no longer be her local chapter advisor. She then served under a student President who was entering her senior year of high school and found other interest and was not 100% committed to the role. I share this as all these obstacles would set back any student leader, but Amy is not an average student or student leader! She grabbed the reigns, took on more, supported her team, develop a great bond with her team and finished her term in office as with enormous success. After such a trying year I thought she would move onto another activity, but she decided to run for President of Team 64. Her reputation around the state was solid and no chapter would run against her which is a testament to her tenure with Team 63. As President she continues to develop success and support her team while homing in on developing their leadership skills to reach our annual goal of leaving Florida DECA better than she found it. It is an impressive experience to watch her work and build success! I have seen 25 other Florida DECA Presidents during my tenure, and she ranks as one of my top two if not even first!"