Members of Elizabethtown College’s finance concentration attended a competition at McDaniel College on Oct. 23. The team representing Etown consisted of senior Andrew Malik, junior Hannah Blecker, senior Austin Good, junior Katie Binkley, senior Jeff Boyer and senior Nate Fosbenner.
They had been preparing for this competition since the beginning of October. One reason for participating in the competition was the experience to take on a real-world situation in finance. “I decided to go to the competition for a real-life experience of what analysts do on the job everyday. I also wanted to join the competition to practice my presentation skills and to be challenged,” Binkley said. “We decided to do it because we all wanted to get some professional experience presenting our ideas in front of a crowd and show our knowledge,” Blecker added.
The team won first place at the competition, beating the two-year champion Juniata College. Other schools that attended the competition were Towson State, American University, Wilson College, Dickinson College, Morgan State and Howard universities. Almost all of these institutions offer AACSB accredited business programs. The student teams competed in finance cases, presenting their solutions before the 10 judges who served as a mock board of directors. All of the judges were finance experts. Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Bryan Greenberg served as one of the judges in the competition.
Presentations made by each team were limited to 20 minutes. After which, there were 10 minutes for judges to ask questions of the teams. There was only one chance to showcase all the research and financial analyses. The judges asked questions closely related to the financial analysis and conclusions drawn by the teams. The teams were not allowed to watch other teams present and the order of the competition was chosen at random by the organizer of the competition.
Assistant Professor of Finance Dr. Emma Neuhauser was the faculty advisor who guided the research and financial analysis the students were working on during the preparation process. “I directed all the meetings, showed them how to do research and how to conduct financial analysis on real-world situations while many uncertainties exist. I also helped them construct professional presentations and taught them what is expected in business and finance,” Neuhauser said. Along with giving them finance tips, she showed them how to work effectively as a team by demonstrating how tasks could be divided while still producing a coherent case that they could present as a team. “It is a lot of time commitment, however it is all worth it for our students, because I took it as an opportunity to teach real-world practices to the students so they are better prepared for their career.”
