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Woody L. Hunt College of Business Winter Competitions
For a group of Woody L. Hunt College of Business students at The University of Texas at El Paso, the rigors of classes haven’t been the only thing keeping them busy during the first quarter of the year.
A slew of the Woody L. Hunt College of Business students have been busy representing UTEP at various winter competitions throughout the country and internationally. And they’ve been doing it well, collecting accolades, bolstering their professional skill sets and raising the Woody L. Hunt College of Business standing in the national picture.
“The way the University gains a positive reputation is not so much through these types of competitions,” said Bill Conwell, director of the Woody L. Hunt College of Business Corporate Engagement Project. “It’s because of the students that come from here. It starts with students taking on these opportunities and representing the University in a positive manner.”
The NSF Case Cup Competition
Conwell fielded one such set of students during the National Sports Forum Case Cup Competition, which took place Feb. 11-13 in Frisco, Texas.
The NSF Case Cup Competition is a master’s case-style competition that gives students a unique opportunity to compete in a multidisciplinary case study utilizing the skills obtained in their programs’ curriculum.
The UTEP team included Stephanie Amerena, Christian Cabral, Raul Gomez and Yazmin Montoya. The quartet was charged with completing a 24-hour multidisciplinary case study designed to push them to excel in a real world, fast-paced environment similar to working conditions in the sports industry. They were the first UTEP students to ever to be invited to the NSF competition. While the team didn’t take the top prize at the competition, the experience was nonetheless enlightening.
“You could see all the potential you could reach in something you never thought possible,” Amerena said.
After completing the experiential learning opportunity, students transitioned into attendees at the National Sports Forum, the largest annual cross gathering of the top team sports marketing, sales, promotions and event entertainment executives from the broad range of teams and leagues in North America. Case Cup students are the only students allowed to attend the National Sports Forum.
“The experience was not just enriching academically,” Gomez said. “But also, the other days we spent there were very enriching because we tried our best to network. We got advice from people in this business, we got to go to panel sessions. It was just very unique.”
ISM Case Competition
As it was for the group in Frisco, a quartet of students represented UTEP’s first-ever entry in the Institute for Supply Management’s Shelley Stewart Case Competition.
The competition took place Feb. 21-23 during the ISM Impact 2018 Diversity Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland. the Woody L. Hunt College of Business students Jorge Gonzalez, Mariana Madero and Cesar Gutierrez, along with Jose Martinez from the College of Engineering, took part in the event, which matched teams from invited colleges in a demonstration of analytical and reasoning skills in a professional setting, much like they will face in the business world.
“This is a huge step for UTEP to come and have the relationship with this program,” said Gonzalez, who served as the team leader. “We received the opportunity to network and learn from individuals from the industry of supply chain management. It was a great opportunity to have for our future at the University.”
UTEP’s team finished third, showcasing its talent in front of attendees comprised of executives from companies such as DuPont, Yahoo, Honda and A.T. Kearney.
“We were awarded third place in the case competition,” Madero said. “This was very highly regarded around the ISM since this was the first year UTEP participated in a national competition of this caliber. It was an incredible learning experience. It gave us the opportunity to put our studies and learning into practice in what is not only a very realistic supply chain crisis but also one that could be highly common in the future.”
CFA Southwest Research Challenge
A report prepared by a team of UTEP finance students finished in the top ten of the CFA Institute Research Challenge-Southwest U.S. last month.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a global competition that tests the equity research and valuation, investment report writing, and presentation skills of university students.
Each Research Challenge season leverages the efforts of over 140 CFA member societies, 3,500-member volunteers, and more than 5,000 students from over 1,000 universities. Local competitions (organized by societies) lead up to regional finals. Regional champions then convene for the global final.
The UTEP team of Nubia Miranda, Samanta Natera, Diana Palma and Daniel Valles were invited, as a top ten winner, to present its report in Dallas at the SMU campus. The team was eligible to compete in the oral presentation phase to be held at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Winners from that competition moved on to the regional round in Boston in March.
EIECC
In collaboration with the College of Engineering, the Woody L. Hunt College of Business sent two students to the first annual Ethics in Engineering Case Competition at the Lockheed-Martin Aerospace facility in Fort Worth, TX.
Lockheed Martin, in partnership with the University of Illinois College of Business Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society, organized its first engineering ethics case competition. The event took place at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility in Fort Worth, Texas, and featured a tour of the F-35 production line.
The competition aimed to prepare undergraduate students from technical disciplines to face the ethical challenges of the 21st century. To this end, Lockheed Martin prepared a case with engineering, ethical and business implications. Each team received a brief summary of the case before the competition and was asked to analyze it from a variety of different perspectives and present their recommendations during the competition.
The first-place winners were from the Virginia Tech College of Engineering.
APICS
UTEP’s College of Business APICS student chapter participated in the Deloitte competition in Mexico City on February 24th. Our goals included winning the competition, gaining valuable experience in a work like atmosphere and the opportunity to network with both Deloitte members and fellow students participating in the case competition. Each of our student members who participated had a mission to bring the knowledge gained in this experience to APICS and UTEP as a whole.
The APICS Case Competition is an event where APICS and Deloitte collaborate to provide a real-life supply chain problem for students to solve. Deloitte, better known for its consulting services, gives operational and financial advice to companies. The goal was to achieve growth and intellectual development of the participants in a unique experience. As a team, we needed to solve or give the best solution that we found based on analysis and knowledge from the information given. Within this competition, there were 8 different teams from North and South America.
The attention to detail during this competition in Mexico City was very relevant in the professional and cultural aspect for students. It opened our mind to a new culture and also the ability to analyze and arrive at a result while working as a team and encouraging intellectual growth.
