ASU student Hope Smith (photo contributed).

ASU Student Leads First-Place Team in Winning International Business Education Competition

By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU

An Alabama State University student enrolled in the  Percy J. Vaughn, Jr. College of Business Administration (COBA), Hope Smith, was the leader of the team that was the global winner in the GSU-Center for International Business Education and Research (GSU-CIBER) Case Competition. 

COBA's Dean Kamal Hingorani, shared that Smith, a senior majoring in Business Management at ASU, was the leader of the winning team, composed of business students from other universities and colleges from across the nation who competed in the annual contest that was held in Georgia. Hingorani explained that the other ASU students who took part in the competition participated as members of different teams, and although they all did very well, they did not place in the competition.
"We are most proud of the great achievement of all of our students who took place in the global contest, especially our student scholar, Ms. Smith, and how she led her team to victory over the many other teams involved in the competition," Hingorani said. "This is the first time that ASU has placed first in this competition, which is a wonderful thing. I also wish to give a great deal of positive credit to one of our faculty members, Professor Krystal Trone, for the thorough job she did in preparing Smith and others who were team members, which involved a lot of dedication, hard work, and perseverance on her part."

BACKGROUND ON STUDENT TEAM WINNER
ASU's Hope Smith is no stranger to being selected for numerous academic and University honors. She is currently the vice president of the University's Student Government Association, was selected as a Thurgood Marshall College Fund scholar, and already has a job offer with Truist in Atlanta, Ga., in its rotational management program at what Hingorani terms as "a very competitive salary."

ABOUT GSU-CIBER CASE COMPETITION
According to the GSU-CIBER website, the competition is an annual event in which students from several different universities across the nation —especially minority-serving institutions— are placed in groups to solve real-world business problems. The students are assigned to teams of four students each, all from different universities and majoring in a distinct field of study. Organizers purport that this approach allows students to work through multiple cross-cultural obstacles, including different study habits, learning methods and even diverse university cultures. The fields represented during the Case Competition are finance, accounting, marketing, management and operations.

The International Business Case Competition is funded by the U.S. Department of Education with the goal of mounting competitiveness in the global market. The competition allows students to work together in teams while preparing them to enter the global job market, in which they will be confronted with actual business problems similar to those brought before them during the contest.

COBA's Dean believes this competition was a very "sweet success" for all involved.

"This win this competition is a very proud moment for COBA and for Hope Smith as well, whose performance really stole the show and brought Alabama State its first victory in this important contest," Hingorani concluded.

ASU news media contact: Kenneth Mullinax, 334-229-4104.

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