Stetson University students took first place in the Capitol Hill Bracket of the 17^th annual McDonough Business Strategy Challenge held recently at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

This international competition brings together top business school students from around the world with consulting professionals to provide nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C. area with innovative solutions to real-world challenges. This year, the other bracket winners included the University of Toronto, Maastricht University School of Business and Economics and Singapore Management University.

Team members included Bec Hett (team captain), senior Human Resource Management and Religious Studies major; Amandine Louis-Charles, junior International Studies and Accounting major; Matthew Clements, senior Finance major; and Mark Manglardi, senior Management major. Faculty advisors for the Business Ethics Case Competition (BECC) Team are Jim Beasley, John Tichenor and Areti Vogel, with Tichenor serving as the lead coach for this competition.

“Participation in the Georgetown Competition was an experience that will benefit me for the rest of my professional career,” said Louis-Charles. “The opportunity to sharpen my research, analytical, presentation and problem-solving skills in a competitive environment will give me an edge in a job market where employers are seeking persons with this kind of training.”

The Stetson team competed against four other teams in the Capitol Hill Bracket, including Babeș-Bolyai University of Romania, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Calgary and ESADE Business School.

Stetson was the smallest university to field a team in the international competition and the only U.S.-based school to make the finals. Other U.S. schools in the competition included Emory University, Florida State University, Georgetown University, Oakland University and The George Washington University.

Teams were given a real-life business case and 28 hours to develop a solution.