March 27, 2006

Springfield, OH-On March 24, six participating schools rolled into Springfield ready to compete in the two-day Tau Pi Phi Case Competition. Five Wittenberg management majors and their faculty coach, Dr. Wendy Gradwohl, planned and executed the event.

Libby Pike '06, shared, " The Tau Pi Phi project was a very rewarding project. The project goes beyond the classroom by allowing us to experience real life situations that help us develop our problem solving, team work and communication skills."

Dr. Gradwohl commented, "The PMA team has been planning this event since last semester, and their effort and hard work paid off. During the competition, they were able to respond quickly to any problems that arose. All in all, I was very pleased with their performance."

The students marketed the competition to other universities, make hotel reservations, scheduled presentation rooms and obtained the proper audiovisual and computer equipment, contracted with the university catering services to provide the banquet dinner, recruited local business professionals to participate as judges, purchased plaques for the winners, and developed gift bags to each participant.

Hannah Auxter, who was the team's project leader this year comments, "I'm really proud of our team's initiative - we planned a great competition. Previous participants and advisors from other schools told us this competition was the best-run competition they had attended-their compliments reinforced all of our hard work."

Rajeevee Panditharatna '06 , shared her feelings on being a part of the WittCAM project, "The feeling of seeing months of hard work finally pay off was great. The entire event went smoothly, as planned. I am glad I was able to be a part of this experience, and would recommend it to any Management student who is looking for an exciting alternative to a class."

Nate Cherry, senior management major, noted, "Working with other students in a year long project was a great real-life experience. It was really rewarding to see our project turn into a success."

Cari Gronowski '07, will be serving as the project leader for the 2006-2007 Tau Pi Phi Case Competition. She commented, "I've learn a lot throughout the course of the year. I now have a good grasp as to what to expect and how to lead my team next year. There is a lot of outside work involved, but it all pays off in the end."

Several members of the Management Department attended various functions throughout the weekend. The faculty, Lowell Stockstill, Wayne Maurer, department chairman John Fenimore (who made the presentation awards at the banquet), and Pamela Schindler were very impressed with the final result of the competition. Ron Luccesi, adviser to Wittenberg 's Tau Pi Phi chapter, who usually is in charge of the competition teams, commented "It went very well, the students enjoyed it, and it was a spirited competition. The students who organized it, under Wendy's supervision, did an excellent job."

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