Throughout the semester, groups of Fox School students traveled across the country to use the skills they learned in the classroom to compete in a variety of prestigious case competitions. Not only did they compete in these high-level competitions, but many won first place.
“These accomplishments speak volumes about Temple, Fox and the quality of our students,” says Dean Ron Anderson.
Boston College Corcoran Center Case Competition
Five undergraduate real estate students Brianna Boughton, Taylor Henry, Jake Lewis, Luis Engleton-Sapon and Nathan Wakefield won the 2023 Boston College Corcoran Center Case Competition. These students are also leaders of the Temple Real Estate Organization.
“I can’t possibly describe what an amazing accomplishment this is for them, and we are just; ‘over the moon’ proud of their efforts and success,” says David Wilk, assistant professor of finance and director of the real estate program at the Fox School.
There were 56 undergraduate and graduate-level teams from across the nation that participated in the competition.
“Our team worked hard to build out a researched solution for affordable housing as part of Nashville’s East Bank redevelopment,” says Lewis. “Our participation enabled us to learn firsthand about the urgent need for affordable housing development in this country. We built off each other’s strengths, which made for a great atmosphere to confidently and professionally pitch our solution to the judges.”
Intercollegiate Insurance Sales Challenge
The 2023 Intercollegiate Insurance Sales Challenge (IISC) was held in Tampa, Fla. Students were provided with a case that described a business and identified issues the business owners are having with their current agents.
This year, there were 10 teams from seven universities. Representing Temple University and the Risk, Actuarial Science, and Legal Studies Department at the IISC were current students Alex Meals and Rowan Williams.
Meals and Williams advanced to the final round of the competition where they placed second.
“Preparation for the qualifying round at Temple and the main competition involved local sales professionals serving as mentors and coaches,” says Randy Dumm, professor and deputy chair of the department. “Also, business owners for the qualifying competition and to help Meals and Williams prepare for the main competition. This is the second year that Temple has participated in the competition and the results this year build on last year’s performance.”
University of Missouri-St. Louis CUIBE Case Competition
The Consortium for Undergraduate International Business Education (CUIBE) held its 10th annual case competition at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Fox School International Business Association (IBA) students John Saul, Asher Carver, Lucy Chen and JaQuerra Washington competed in the case competition.
The case competition asks students to showcase their critical thinking skills and business talents by addressing global challenges. The judges who participated were high-ranked executives from St. Louis companies doing business globally.
“The team did a great job addressing the case challenge and represented the Fox School and Temple University well in St Louis,” says Mary Conran, professor of marketing and associate dean of academic programs and curriculum. “Student participation was made possible by joint funding from the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and the Department of Management.”
Vanguard ETF Challenge
Vanguard and the Fox School’s Finance Department hosted the Vanguard Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) Challenge. The competition took place from March through April, with 16 teams of Temple graduate and undergraduate students.
Participants in the competition were given the opportunity to simulate real-world trading scenarios and compete against their peers in a mock trading environment.
“Jerome’s Pals” was named the winning team was Fox School finance students Ethan Mosser, Henry Coughlin, Spencer Ramsay and Ronan Mulholland. Andrew Akraz and Brahd Schwamy took home second place.
“All members of the top two teams are undergraduate Fox students,” says Jessica Hallstrom, associate director of the Department of Finance. “The students have raised the bar in terms of clever and calculated trading strategies and the judges were very impressed.”
Managing Risk Across Enterprise Case Competiton
Risk management and insurance undergraduate students taking the Managing Risk Across the Enterprise capstone course participated in a case competition under the instruction of Professors Jim Harrington and M. Michael Zuckerman.
The student teams prepared a risk assessment of a publicly traded firm. The students were required to understand the firm’s industry, identify material risks and assess the potential impact of these inherent risks on the organization, like reputational injury.
“The project required an analysis of risk treatment solutions for the risks identified and was based upon Enterprise Risk Management principles,” says Michael Zuckerman, associate professor of risk, actuarial science and legal studies. “In this spirit, the students also had to prepare a risk register and risk map.”
The winning team included undergraduate students, Lana Malik, Zachary Sultanik, Rayan Kapadia and Jakob Margolis.
Industry professionals from the fields of risk management and insurance judged the competition and rated the students based on their written reports and oral presentations. The foundation of this program was built on experiential learning and industry engagement.