Neeley School of Business students excel at regional and national competitions

Fort Worth, TX

5/5/2006

Undergraduate and graduate students from the Neeley School of Business at TCU have been winning competitions at a fast pace.

Students in Free Enterprise team named regional champions

A team of three MBA students representing the campus organization won the grand Prize at the Student in Free Enterprise USA Regional Competition, held in Dallas in April. The team – Vineeta Menezes, Isela Rodriguez and Baronda Bradley – will advance to the SIFE USA National Exposition, May 21-23, in Kansas City, Missouri. TCU SIFE – made up of more than 25 undergraduate and graduate business students – organized projects throughout the school year, such as the Nuts & Bolts Conference, which provided college students with information for successfully launching or growing a new business. They also partnered with Junior Achievement to bring the JA curriculum to more than 1,300 Fort Worth elementary school students. SIFE is an international nonprofit organization present on more than 1,800 university campuses in more than 40 countries.

Marketing students win Case Competition

Three Neeley School students placed in the top three teams at Simon Marketing Association’s Marketing Case Competition, April 21-22, sponsored by Heineken USA. Second year MBA student Priscila Soria Sanchez was on the grand prize team, which was awarded $5,000. Dana Kendall was on the first runner up team and Ed Poppe was on the second runner up team. Both are first year MBA students. The competition is unique in that each participant is randomly assigned to a team of five MBA students the night before competition begins.

Entrepreneurship students fly high at national competition

With a business plan for Time Zone Airlines, a hardworking team of two students from the Neeley Entrepreneurship Program, Chris Schaum and Matt Jacobson, went up against teams from across the country to win Best Entrepreneurial Effort at the 9th Annual Enterprise Creation Competition, held at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The Enterprise Creation Competition invites undergraduate students from across the country to develop business plans that demonstrate the ability to be successfully launched.

Educational Investment Fund students excel at international competition

The Neeley School’s Educational Investment Fund (EIF) program won the Large Cap Growth Strategy category at the 6th Annual Redefining Investment Strategy Education (RISE) symposium at the University of Dayton, March 29-April 1. In addition to being one of the largest student-run funds at the conference, the EIF was further distinguished by the near $2.2 million dollars in contributions made during the William C. Conner Foundation Fund's existence. Representing the Neeley School’s EIF were Stefan Wolf, chief administrative officer; Marc Richards, portfolio manager; Kara Scarbrough, portfolio manager; and Josh Long, chief accountant.

MBA students take third in Texas Shootout Real Estate Challenge

Neeley School placed third in the First Annual Texas Shootout Real Estate Challenge, sponsored by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), an impressive win for their first appearance against much larger teams and university departments from SMU, Texas A&M, University of Texas, Rice and University of North Texas. The TCU team included Steven Greathouse, Carl Krogness, Michael Leshan, Isela Rodriguez and Blair Swing. These five MBA students had six days in which to analyze and present their solutions to a real-world commercial real estate development challenge.

Supply chain students win prestigious national competition in first appearance

In their first appearance at a national case competition sponsored by the Denver Transportation Club, three undergraduate students from the Neeley School of Business at TCU claimed victory over some of the most prestigious supply chain programs in the country, including two-time defending champions Arizona State University, Michigan State University, University of Arkansas, Georgia Southern University, Clarkson University, the University of West Florida and John Carroll University. The Neeley team, sponsored by the Supply and Value Chain Center at the Neeley School of Business, included Jeff DeArment, Trey Davis and Carsten Frederikson, all majors in the new Supply Chain program at TCU. Teams from all other universities had five students each.

Neeley School of Business rankings

The Wall Street Journal ranked TCU’s Neeley School of Business #18 in the recent 2005 national survey comparing 47 top regional MBA programs across the U.S. For the second consecutive year, the Neeley program is in the top 20 and currently is the highest ranked business school in Texas.

BusinessWeek ranked TCU’s Neeley School of Business #33 in their first-ever comprehensive ranking of U.S. undergraduate business programs. The rankings were based on five measures of student engagement, post-graduation outcomes and academic quality.

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