Twenty-seven teams of NDSU students demonstrated their skills in business ethics during the inaugural College of Business Ethics Challenge held Oct. 18 in Barry Hall.
During the competition, four-member student teams gave five-minute presentations that identified a hypothetical dilemma, described ethical implications, presented ways the situations could be addressed and explained consequences if specific actions were taken. A total of 108 students participated.
The top four teams were awarded scholarships:
• First place and $2,000 went to a team comprised of Hattie Koeckeritz, finance; Abby Aberle, accounting; Abby McCauley, accounting; and Mikayla Barthomay, finance.
• Second place and $1,500 went to Michael Rudolph, finance; Lee Vetsh, finance and economics; Hannah Lange, finance and economics; and Lars Erickson, finance.
• Third place and $1,000 went to Atati Mita, business administration; Maya Feldsien, business administration; Matthew Friedmann, management; and Hunter Pogatchnik, marketing.
• Fourth place and $500 went to Shailaja Radhaknishnan, management information systems; Amy Sawyer, management information systems; Matthias Frampton, marketing; and Katelyn Hoppe, marketing.
The scholarships were made possible by the generous support of the Wold family.
“Tom Wold, a prominent name in the Fargo community, gave money to the college several years ago to support the college providing extracurricular opportunities to talk about themes of business ethics,” said Scott Beaulier, NDSU Ronald and Kay Olson Dean of Business. “His view is when you get into your first jobs, you will face challenges day in and day out on what is the right thing to do. These are questions that have huge implications for your own careers, but also the people you serve. He wants us to tackle the themes of ethics and doing the right thing, which makes this a great competition.”
The teams were judged by professionals from the business community, including Jonathan Matter from Border States Electric; Jordy Christian from Federated Insurance; Heather Ostrowki, Jacob Pazdernik and Matt Schlenvogt of Gate City Bank; Justin Fox of Haga Kommer CPAs; Grant Henriksen from Microsoft; Crystal Boyd and Joe Storbakken of Titan Machinery; and Nick Gordon and Celine Francisco from Wells Fargo.
Jill Zuber, associate professor of accounting, suggested the idea to Beaulier, designed elements of the competition, rallied student interest and administered the event.
“The students were creative, collaborated well and enjoyed the opportunity to compete for scholarships,” Zuber said. “It was a tremendous success.”
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