Elevate Ep 41: Strategies for Success with Dee McDonald PhD, President of Bethel University

**Jason Ulm** (0:13)
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Hey everybody, Jason Ulm here with another episode of the Elevate Powered by Braden Podcast. And this is one of the maybe first or second times I had an opportunity to speak to a university president, and had a good conversation with Dee, probably a few weeks, maybe a month or so ago. And it was a great conversation. We were talking about South Bend and getting up there with my wife to see a concert. The thing I should have asked for, because I told him where I was going to eat, at Essin House, talked a little bit about that. I probably should have asked how I should address for the concert, because we didn't do a very good job. But it was a great time up in South Bend. It was a good time meeting you, but Dee, welcome to the show.

**Dee McDonald** (1:22)
Thanks. Yeah, excited to be here and chat about wherever the conversation goes. Probably a lot of things that maybe we didn't even chat about before.

**Jason Ulm** (1:31)
That's right. I'm looking forward to it, my friend. So let's start with where you are today before we go back to your genesis.

**Dee McDonald** (1:36)
I'm at Bethel University in Mishawaka, so right outside of South Bend, and I'm the president there.

**Jason Ulm** (1:43)
Yeah, it's awesome. Okay, I know that's where you are today, but let's go back to your beginning. Where are you from originally?

**Dee McDonald** (1:48)
Grubin La Porte, Indiana.

**Jason Ulm** (1:49)
Slicer.

**Dee McDonald** (1:50)
Yeah, that's right. It's the only slicer mascot in the nation.

**Jason Ulm** (1:55)
Now, that I didn't know, seriously. No other high school in the United States has a slicer. So I guess, what's a slicer?

**Dee McDonald** (2:03)
That's a great question. I'm glad you asked. Yeah. So originally, one of the first set of uniforms was purchased for the baseball team at the high school.

**Jason Ulm** (2:13)
Okay.

**Dee McDonald** (2:13)
And there was a company in town called American Slicer. And so they said, we'll buy the uniforms if you'll let us put the logo on the front or write our name on the front. So they put Slicer on the front. Seriously. And it just stuck. And it's that's they've been the Slicers ever since. I mean, it's very rudimentary, like just very practical.
It's not special. Like it's no one died. No one was going to kill it in the making of this mascot.

**Jason Ulm** (2:36)
It wasn't in honor of anything.

**Dee McDonald** (2:38)
It was just that.

**Jason Ulm** (2:38)
It's a company in town. They paid for the uniforms. And here you go.

**Dee McDonald** (2:41)
Yeah. Try to get their little marketing or advertising out of it.

**Jason Ulm** (2:44)
Right. And the Slicers are born. That's awesome. All right. So what does high school look like for you back in those days?

**Dee McDonald** (2:50)
I went to La Porte High School. I was a good student.
But any sport I could pretty much play. I played through middle school. In high school, I got a little more specific. Played baseball and basketball in high school. And then quickly, as I moved into an upperclassman, just really focused on baseball.

**Jason Ulm** (3:08)
Okay.

**Dee McDonald** (3:08)
And that's, I played baseball pretty much non-stop. Yeah. All this time.

**Jason Ulm** (3:12)
That's what you did up there. You beat those kids from the caliber.

**Dee McDonald** (3:15)
That's for us.

**Jason Ulm** (3:15)
So yeah, I remember those days. We don't like you guys that much.

**Dee McDonald** (3:18)
And so do what he did. Let's be honest. Yeah. Nobody likes the team that wins all the time.

**Jason Ulm** (3:22)
Well, we couldn't get over you guys.

**Dee McDonald** (3:26)
All right.

**Jason Ulm** (3:26)
So you finish up high school. As you think about what comes next, were you going to go be King Griffey Jr. or did you decide you were going to go to college somewhere?

**Dee McDonald** (3:35)
You know, I thought I would always go to college. I mean, my mom and dad both went to college. Even my grandpas and grandpas and grandmas on my mom's side. You know, they all went. I'm actually a third generation grad. So, I went to Azarine University over in Illinois.