April proved a month to remember for members of two student organizations in the College of Business Administration— Alpha Kappa Psi  and the American Marketing Association (AMA). They competed at the national level and scored impressive victories.

Alpha Kappa Psi wins prestigious Johnson & Johnson case competition.

A five-person team from the College of Business Administration’s Alpha Kappa Psi chapter won the national Johnson & Johnson Case Competition, held at the company’s corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey on April 10-11, 2008.

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Jaime Montalvan, Isselle Medina, Anthony Munyaka, Maria E. Sabando, and Matthew Ohashi bested teams from Bucknell University, La Salle University, Pennsylvania State University, Rider University, Rutgers University, Seton Hall University, University of Florida, University of Illinois, and Villanova University.

“The judges told us that our having done a weighted SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, rather than a simple SWOT analysis, worked in our favor, as did the fact that we performed a Porter’s five forces analysis,” Medina said.

Between winning the campus competition on March 24, 2008, at which two teams from the college’s Financial Management Association and one from the Florida International University Accounting Association also competed, team members could not make any changes to their presentation. However, they were allowed to polish how they presented the information, and they devoted about thirty hours to doing so.

Michael Jadoo, chapter president, provided input to Alpha Kappa Psi’s team prior to the campus event and accompanied them to the finals. James Bussey (EMBA ’99), chief of staff, Executive Dean’s Office and founder, three years ago, of the Yellow Rose Toastmasters club on campus and himself a winner of many speaking contests, serves as advisor to the fraternity and helped team members refine their presentation skills.

The college’s chapter of AMA was the second-largest collegiate chapter to attend the 30th Annual International AMA Collegiate Conference, held from April 3-5, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

AMA remains solidly in top tier of collegiate chapters nationwide.

With more than 300 chapters in AMA’s collegiate division, the college’s placement in the Top Eight netted them a “Distinguished Chapter” award at the 30th Annual International AMA Collegiate Conference, the theme of which was “Absolutely DIG-IT-AL,” held from April 3-5, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“This is the sixth consecutive year the chapter has been in the Top 10,” said faculty advisor Tim Dugan Birrittella, lecturer, Department of Marketing, who has overseen the chapter’s rejuvenation and who was appointed to the AMA’s Collegiate Chapters Council for three years, including as conference co-chair for the 2008 event, and again for 2009.

AMA members Lyssette Gonzalez and Mariana Lopardo with two of the items that contestants advertised.

Also, the chapter’s entry in the exhibition competition won the “Student’s Choice” award, representing the chapter’s first such award.

“Our booth—“Digital Idol”—was an American Idol meets an on-the-spot sales competition” said David Velez, chapter vice president, who coordinated the group of students who developed and built the concept.

Through a series of fundraisers, students amassed more than $21K to help subsidize the majority of the trip for the 37 members who attended—the second largest student contingent present.