DATE: March 31, 2008

A team of UW Foster School of Business undergraduates won third place at the fourth annual Business Strategy Challenge (BSC) at Georgetown University in Washington, DC on March 29. Foster students Olivia Miasik, Xayachuck Viradet, Luis Silva-Behrens and Queenie Man used their finance, accounting and marketing skills to create and present a comprehensive fundraising and management plan for the Academy for Learning Through the Arts (ALTA), a charter school in DC’s public school district.

The University of Florida took first place and Georgetown University’s home team was awarded second place. Other universities that competed included Boston College, Carnegie Mellon, Clemson University, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Southern Methodist University, Villanova University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Having never competed together before, the UW team had 36 hours to analyze a business case focused on an education non-profit. The Foster team placed first in the preliminary round held Saturday morning on Georgetown’s campus. Final round presentations were made before a panel of judges comprised of Georgetown professors, ALTA board members and consultants.

Foster School advisor Krista Peterson of the Global Business Center, who accompanied the students, remarked, “This team did a great job of organizing an aggressive but realistic business plan for ALTA in a very short time. They really applied their experiences at the Foster School to the issues ALTA is facing and gave the school’s board some very useful ideas on how to organize strategy for their future success.”

The Business Strategy Challenge is organized by Hilltop Consultants, a student-run consulting organization at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Each year, the competition presents the participants a live case study to analyze. By deviating from the traditional corporate case method of business school competitions, the BSC provides undergrads an opportunity to consult for a non-profit organization.