Department of Marketing and Management Information Systems chair, 308.865.8174
UNK- The “Unique Boutique” team won first place at the bi-annual spring Kay Payne Case Competition at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
“This is a competition for students enrolled in upper-division business courses in the UNK College of Business and Technology,” said Dr. Greg Broekemier, marketing and management information systems department chair.
“The basic purposes of the competition are to provide students with experience serving as student business consultants and enhance their learning, to encourage professors to become involved with the practice of business and increase their engagement with the business community, and to reward outstanding student work,” Dr. Broekemier said.
Kay Payne, former director of the UNK Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) and the Center for Rural Research and Development (CRRD), proposed the business competition three years ago.
“Kay Payne originated the idea for this competition and supplied the award endowment from money generated by the CRRD,” Dr. Broekemier said.
Teams, which consist of four-five students, must be enrolled in upper-division business classes. According to Dr. Broekemier, special problems, independent studies and internship classes are excluded from the competition. Faculty members create student teams within their classes and assign or approve business clients for the students to work with. Judges consist of members from the College of Business and Technology External Business Advisory Council and other area business leaders.
According to Dr. Brokemier, team projects are judged based on “the ability to identify the business problem, gather relevant information, analyze the information, quality and clarity of recommendations made for the client, plan to assess recommended actions, quality of writing, and appropriate use of business discipline-specific terminology and concepts.”
Place, project and team members are listed alphabetically by hometown.
First Place
Unique Boutique
Elm Creek– Jade Meads
Kearney– Julieta Baptista and Amber Brosseau.
WISCONSIN
Janesville– Shannon Chaney
Runner-up
Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Bellevue– Kara Dacey
Cedar Rapids– Bryan Molt
Lexington– Sarah Sculley
Lincoln– Nathan Swearer
The Frank House
Bellevue– Brittany Bengtson
Broken Bow– Marissa Ridenour
Holdrege– Nicholle Parker
GERMANY
Luebz– Marcus Block
KANSAS
McPherson– Stacey Ross
