College of Business News

Montana State University (MSU) College of Business (CoB) team members, Justin Hestekin, Amanda Johnson and Brad Penoyer, traveled to Spokane last week to participate in the local CFA Institute Research Challenge, where they placed first, winning the local round of the competition in Spokane, WA. They competed against teams from Whitworth, Washington State, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, and the University of Montana, as well as Carroll College. The trio of MSU CoB finance students advanced to the Americas regional round in Toronto, Canada, held on March 20-21.The regional competition will host 46 teams spanning the Americas region. The winning team will then face off in London against the winners from the Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) regions.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a competition between university-sponsored teams that research a designated publicly traded company, prepare a written report on that company and then present their findings to a panel of judges. Business and finance students participating in the CFA Institute Research Challenge interact with investment professionals and top firms while gaining real-world experience in equity analysis, sell-side research report writing and presentation skills.

The MSU CoB team, coached by Peter Rubicam, CoB adjunct instructor of finance, and Eric Flynn, CoB alumnus with Bitterroot Capital Advisors, LLC, spent three months preparing an analysis of one company for the competition. Rubicam said, “I have been extremely impressed by the meticulous preparation and outstanding professionalism displayed by these students in achieving this victory.”

This is the third year that MSU CoB has fielded a team. Previous team members have said the experience was not only rewarding, but also provided them with invaluable experience. In 2011, the MSU CoB team placed 2nd at the Spokane competition. These students received support and funding from the Alderson Program in Entrepreneurship.

For more information about the competition, please contact Peter Rubicam, peter.rubicam@montana.edu or 406-994-6198.

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The College of Business and the Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship are co-sponsoring an upcoming event: Education, Philanthropy and Civic Engagement with Charles Best - Social Entrepreneurship: My Venture Changes the World. Can Yours?

This event will be held in the SUB Ballrooms from 7:30-9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5th.

Educator and entrepreneur, Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, will tell his story of philanthropy and innovation. As the founder of an online charity connecting classrooms in need with donors who want to help, Best went from teaching in his own classroom in the Bronx to impacting more than 8.5 million students in America. DonorsChoose has currently distributed nearly $170,000,000.

“We are thrilled to be hosting Mr. Best, who in the spirit of philanthropy, will be giving the audience over $22,000 in the form of $50 DonorsChoose gift cards,” says Carmen McSpadden, Director of the MSU Leadership Institute. “Those attending can feel the joy of being a citizen philanthropist and the joy of positively impacting a classroom of their choosing, be it a Montana classroom or one damaged by the recent New Jersey hurricane,” added McSpadden.

Since its inception, DonorsChoose has become the gold standard of direct-philanthropy in K-12 education in the United States, with 49% of public schools posting and receiving funding through its foundation.

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Seven Montana State University seniors have won the 2013 Torlief Aasheim Community Involvement Awards, the university’s top award for student service.

College of Business senior, Anna Adolphson from Hamilton, Mont., is one of the recipients. She is an accounting major and a member of the Montana Society of Certified Public Accountants. She has also been an officer in Beta Alpha Psi, a national accounting club, and she co-taught MSU’s freshman business seminar as a student associate. Adolphson has volunteered through VITA, a program that is designed to assist people who may find it difficult to pay for tax preparation services. She has also participated in Relay for Life.

Anna Adolphson, Nicolais Cuyle, Jamie Inglis, Shannon LaRocca, Sydney Reichhardt, Esther Yoon and Michael Brent Zundel are the winners of the award, which recognizes a senior student from each college at MSU who, in addition to excelling academically, volunteers on campus and in the community. The award was named for the late MSU alumnus Torlief “Torley” Aasheim, former director of the Montana Cooperative Extension Service and a member of the class of 1937.

For more information about this award, please contact Kerry Hanson, (406) 994-7620 or kshanson@montana.edu, or Malaree Purcell, (406) 994-2522 or malaree.purcell@montana.edu.

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Forty of Montana State University’s top seniors and their faculty or staff mentors were recognized Tuesday, February 19, at the 31st annual Awards for Excellence banquet held on the MSU campus.

The MSU Alumni Foundation and the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce co-hosted the banquet. Honored students were nominated by faculty in their college or department and had at least a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale, as well as demonstrated campus leadership and community service.

The award-winning students selected mentors who were also honored with them at the event.

The 2013 Excellence Award winners and their mentors for the College of Business are:

David Albright, finance, Bozeman, Mont., Gary Caton
Shaina Adami, marketing/management, Stillwater, Minn., Craig Ehlert
Anna Adolphson, accounting, Hamilton, Mont., Anne Christensen
Amanda Powell, accounting, Seattle, Wash., Angela Woodland

For more information about the Awards for Excellence, please contact Kerry Hanson, (406) 994-7620 or kshanson@montana.edu, or Malaree Purcell, (406) 994-2522 or malaree.purcell@montana.edu.

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