Tallahassee, FL. – Students in Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) School of Business and Industry (SBI) won first place at the 13th Annual National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Case Competition defeating teams from Columbia, University of Chicago, New York University, Penn State and Purdue.
This is the first time FAMU has entered the NBMBAA case competition.
FAMU is the only university in the state of Florida that competed in the national competition. The competition featured 30 teams from across the country, including Case Western Reserve, Brandeis, Emory, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Penn State, Univ. of Southern California and Ohio State University.
Sponsored by Chrysler, the case study was built around a real business issue dealing with labor relations, hourly wages and health care. Each competing teams were given four weeks to prepare an analysis and presentation. Students presented their solutions and defended their analyses before a panel of senior executives, who evaluate the teams on presentation skills, thoroughness, and creativity evident in the analyses.
"A lot of the schools participate every year, and so there's rivalry between each school, and so each one wants to outdo the other," said Kim Harris Jones, vice president and chief controller at Chrysler. "Schools go away with bragging rights. It's clearly a competition, and everyone puts their best foot forward."
Each member received $5,000 and a crystal award. FAMU team members included Dominique Drake, Davida Jones, and Mitch Brooks. The team advisors were Drs. Joycelyn Finley-Hervey and Shawnta Friday-Stroud. The team spent quite a bit of time preparing for the competition.
“We spent about 20 hours a week for three weeks preparing for the competition,” said Brooks. “It felt great to showcase FAMU to the country.”
Dominique Drake, team leader, stressed that during the first two weeks it was a little complicated preparing for the competition.
“For the first two weeks of practice, we had to prepare over the telephone because Davida was in California, Mitch was in Washington, D.C. and I was in Panama,” said Drake. “The hard work paid off. We showed others that FAMU produces top qualify students.
Team member Jones echoed Drake.
“Our win truly proves that hard work and dedication does paid off,” said Jones. “I was happy and thrilled when we were one of the 6 finalists of 30 teams. This proves the caliber of students that are in SBI.”
Dean McKinley-Floyd was just as excited as the students.
“This is just the latest in a winning tradition of excellence in case competition for the School of Business and Industry,” said McKinley-Floyd. “I am very proud of the team members.”
Since 1992, the National Black MBA Association Case Competition has awarded more than $300,000 in scholarships to minority business students, and helped more than 1000 MBA students gain access to otherwise unknown scholarship, mentoring and employment opportunities.
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