Congratulations go out to Victor Amaya, Leanne Eberle, Pablo Machado, and Jessica Zavala on winning the “first runner-up” award at the national KPMG/ALPFA business case competition.  Brandon Ford was a fifth team member who was unable to go to the competition due to his internship obligations.  Margarita Lenk, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Information Systems and Department of Accounting was the team coach who helped guide them to this victory. In its seventh year, the competition is sponsored by the accounting firm KPMG LLP and the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA).
 
Professor Lenk said, “The only school that beat our fabulous CSU team was DePaul University.  About forty universities participated in the competition, but only the regional winners advanced to the national competition. The other schools the team competed against at nationals were University of Texas at Austin, University of Southern California, University of Texas – Pan American, Pace University, Georgia State University, and Southern Methodist University.
 
‘Everyone there told me what a fine set of well-rounded professionals we had brought to the competition! The team did an excellent job, both during the competition as well as throughout the entire time in Texas, as excellent ambassadors for CSU’s college of business. They displayed our values of thorough preparation, friendliness, respect for others, and enthusiasm for and commitment to excellence. They even participated in a community service-learning project where side by side with their competitors, they painted the walls of a ‘home style’ prison for women and their newborn infants while learning about how the federal funding was acquired for the facility whose goals were to help those families succeed. Special thanks go to all those who helped our team, especially those who participated in the bank officer interviews and the dress rehearsals.”  
 
The win allows a College of Business team to automatically qualify for next year’s national competition, which will be in Orlando, FL.