Front from left: Rachel Richardson, Cody McDaniel, Blake Harpham, Kimberly Rodell
Middle from left: Cara Van Valkenburg, Shakie Williams, Leah Cronen
Back from left: Pat Simmons, Zachary Leslie

A mix of nine marketing and graphic design majors teamed up to impress the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) judging panel with their plans book and presentation at the 2013 District XI National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) on April 19 in Boise.

Annually,  an NSAC corporate sponsor provides a case study outlining the history of its product and current advertising situation. The case study reflects a real world situation to challenge students’ critical thinking abilities and creativity.

In the fall term, Marketing 401 students began work on the case study for Glidden Paint, the 2012-13 NSAC corporate sponsor. The students conducted primary and secondary research to develop an understanding of the product and target market and created a sound market positioning strategy. In the spring term, students continued their work on the case study in the Marketing 402 class. They compiled a 20-page plans book complete with fully-developed print ads, television spots, mobile and online applications, and in-store and out-of-home advertising. The plans book also summarized their research findings and outlined an annual media plan and PR strategy for Glidden.

A judge and brand manager from Glidden remarked on the well-designed creative in-store and ad concepts, saying, “Your ads are beautifully executed. I would take those to the store right now and implement [them] exactly as they are. Very strong design.”  Other praise included, “So smart that your mobile app emphasizes Glidden at Walmart.” And in remarking on the team’s idea of Glidden for Good, a judge stated, “Solid Tactic. The Boys and Girls Club is a strong fit and great brand alignment.”

On the team’s 20-minute presentation, feedback included, “All of you are great presenters. I loved how you weaved in personal stories and used great humor and creativity throughout.”

For information on joining Boise State’s AAF Chapter or for Mktg 401/402 enrollment information, contact the Department of Marketing and Finance at: mkfi-info@boisestate.edu.

Visit www.aaf.org for more information on the AAF and NSAC.

•  Matthew Kaiserman – MBA
•  Maria Walker – MBA
•  Joseph Newman – MSAT
•  Nicholas Gaudioso Jr. – Accountancy
•  Matt Paradis – Economics
•  Madison Gould – Entrepreneurship Management
•  Edith Jones- Finance
•  Julie Marie Robinson – General Business Management
•  Alan Draper – Human Resource Management
•  Kim Mitchell – Information Technology Management
•  Jenna Leurquin – International Business
•  Kegan Monks – Marketing
•  Theodore Zahn – Supply Chain Management

Members of the team (front left to right): Liliana Mellor, PhD; Daniel Lambert; Jim Pelton; Dan Isla, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Lindsey Catlin; Barbara Morgan, PhD, Distinguished Educator in Residence; Elisa Barney Smith, PhD. (Back left to right) Toby Grant, Kellen Mather, Matthew Dolan, Landon Nye, Tara Smith, Nic Baughman. Not Pictured: Travis Baker, Kim Long, Shaun Millard, Julia Oxford, PhD; and Kevin Warburton.

Nic Baughman (pictured back row far right) is not your ordinary business major. Technically, the senior from Fruitland is pursuing a business management major with an emphasis in entrepreneurship with a chemistry minor, but what he’s been up to over the last year is not the norm for the average business student.

Baughman will lead a student research team into NASA’s  Microgravity University Program, part of the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program that takes place annually at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas through the first week of June. The Boise State team is one of just 7 university teams selected, with the likes of Virginia Tech, Purdue and other esteemed universities, to participate in the program.

The team Baughman captains developed a proposal titled “The Effects of Teriparatide on Calcium Signaling in Bone Cells During Parabolic Flight.” The group is a collection of students interested in business, biology, chemistry, engineering and education. Their results could benefit astronauts who suffer from effects of bone degradation similar to what is seen with osteoporotic patients.

Baughman said that the “cross collaboration” in his combination of business and science fields has been “so effective and meaningful.” The science part of his academic pursuit has helped Baughman with his businesses courses because he has learned to think outside the box yet still focus on the details.

“Science is exactness; it helps with the thinking process,” Baughman said. “The business side helped with all kinds of aspects of the microgravity project.”

Baughman is excited to work and help design the team’s project in the coming months in preparation for June, where the team will test their experiment during Flight Week at the space center.

Baughman himself will not be flying, as he gave his spot up to a teammate that worked especially hard during the project.

“He deserved it,” the selfless leader said.

Even though he isn’t flying, Nic says the payoff for him is the community outreach, which is 30 percent of the project. The team did various presentations in elementary schools. One in particular was Koelsch Elementary School in Boise.

“Going to Koelsch allowed us to go to a more underrepresented population. We wanted to go somewhere where kids would get the most out of it and possibly strike some passion in them,” Baughman said.

With a monumental project such as this under his belt, Baughman would like to see more outside, group learning experiences like this for more students.

“College Students need stuff like this on their resumes to beat out other applicants,” Baughman said.

As the group heads down to Houston on May 30 for their 10-day venture, the senior highlighted that the life-changing project would not mean anything without his team.

“Things I have learned in this group, management wise and teamwork wise, has just propelled me through,” Baughman said. “The real world experience has been greatly beneficial.”

To check out Nic’s blog, click here.

For the Boise State Update story, click here.

Title: Boise River Water Pollution Trading
Students: Mykal Eden, David Gillette and Sam Wonacott
Faculty Advisor: Scott Lowe

Title: Inconvenient Truth About Boise Public Transportation
Students: Benjamin Case, Kellen Hill, Lexy Leahy, Morgan Porter and Jesse Sonoda
Faculty Sponsor: Samia Islam

Title: A True Cost Nightmare, The American Dream
Students: David Gillette, Jon Hampton, Garett McClinton, Trevor Walton and Lucas Westcott
Faculty Advisor: Samia Islam

Judges for the contest were: Sanchari Ghosh, Dan Fox, Shauna Anderson, Robert Minch, Kelly Cobourn, Chris Baughn and Diane Schooley-Pettis.

The award-winning posters will be on display in the Jackson Commons. Congratulations, students!

From left – Zach Bolen, Rhonda Apsley, Troy Hyatt (faculty adviser), Dana Cameron, and Lucas Cooperrider.

This past Saturday, April 6, a team of four COBE accountancy students placed third in the annual Seattle University/KPMG Financial Accounting Case Competition. Team members are Rhonda Apsley, Zach Bolen, Dana Cameron and Lucas Cooperrider.

COBE’s Department of Accountancy has been participating in this competition since it began five years ago. Our students have always done a fine job and represented the university well, but this is the first year we have had a team place in the top three.

“Our students did an outstanding job,” said faculty advisor Troy Hyatt. “In fact, the judges commented that the top three teams were extremely close in scoring and it was very difficult to rank them. There were only tenths of one point that separated the three top teams from each other.”

The topic of the case was Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and the problems they had. The case dealt with several accounting topics including loss contingencies, subsequent events, warranty obligations and disclosure issues.

Congratulations Rhonda, Zach, Dana and Lucas.

Gaudioso has conducted various research projects at Boise State and co-wrote two articles discussing growth analysis that were featured in the Idaho Statesman. As part of his research, he has worked with PKG Solutions and other companies to improve their costing systems. During his junior year, he had the opportunity to represent Boise State in the KPMG/Seattle University Accounting Competition and in 2011 participated in an Eide Bailly summer leadership program.

Nick Gaudioso

Gaudioso also has been active on campus as the vice president, budget director and student funding board officer for ASBSU, and he served on the Boise State Executive Budget Committee, the Student Media Board, the Scholarship Committee, the Bookstore Advisory Board, the Homecoming Committee and the Honors Student Advisory Board. Gaudioso also participated in the Honors Student Association as treasurer and vice president. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Joseph Hutchinson Memorial Scholarship, the Roger Martell Endowment Scholarship and the Don Day Honors Business Scholarship. Gaudioso’s study abroad in San Sebastián, Spain, in the summer of 2012 is representative of his dedication to pursuing new and challenging adventures. Upon graduation, he will continue to expand his knowledge of accounting in graduate school, with a focus in managerial accounting.

Gaudioso’s honored faculty member is Michael Lee, assistant professor of accountancy.

The Top Ten Scholars will be recognized for their exceptional academic success at a reception Tuesday, April 16.

• Scott Blades – MBA
• Amanda Burnett – MBA
• Michael Wright – MSA
• Rhonda Apsley – Accountancy
• Zachary Turk – Economics
• Brian Keeley – Entrepreneurship Management
• Nima Sobbi- Finance
• James Mowrey – General Business Management
• Emily Kudo  – Human Resource Management
• Hanung Park – Information Technology Management
• Meghan Fulcher – International Business
• Cathy Kuria-Horn – Marketing
• Phil Cravens – Supply Chain Management

Team APPathetic

Team APPathetic took first place out 16 teams (65 participants). Their app is called IntelliClic; and it enables a mobile device or computer to replace a classroom clicker device. The app captures information from participants and generates a summary that can be displayed in charts or graphs. Members of Team APPathetic — Jennifer Parke, Han Park, Roger Perez and Colin Smith — won $500 each.

Team Mobile Thunder created an app – ”NoBS – The Ultimate Blue Screen Troubleshooting Tool” that captures error codes generated when a desktop computer crashes. The app uses optical character recognition to change the code into a character string that can be used to search Microsoft troubleshooting database to find suggestions for resolving the problem.

Team Mobile Thunder

Team Mobile Thunder tied another team in the best native app category. Members of Team Mobile Thunder are Jeff Pinkham , Andrew Johnson, Matt Koob and Darius Houle. They each won $100.

All but one of the teams’ members are students in ITM 497 – Mobile Apps Development class taught by Tom Cavaiani and Emerson Maxson.

See Statesman article about all the Boise State app creators.

The International Business Organization (IBO) was privileged recently to have Dr. Bob Kustra, President of Boise State University, sit down with them for a fireside chat in the Jackson Commons in the Micron Business and Economics Building. President Kustra and the students discussed a recent IBO trip to Seattle, Wash. and Vancouver, BC where they visited shipping companies, global firms like Boeing, Darigold and Philips, and governmental and non-governmental agencies to learn about US-Canada Trade relations and international business. Further, students shared their international backgrounds and experiences within COBE and their perspectives on the value of their international business education.

Dr. Kustra was engaging and shared his own knowledge and experience, the international career path of his son, and emphasized the need to prepare students for a globalized world.

“It was a pleasure,” Max Head, IBO President Elect and IB Major said, “to share our experiences with Dr. Kustra and discuss our objectives, goals and how IBO can help students in the International Business Program at Boise State.”

Schenk, the current president of the Boise State chapter, is graduating this Friday. She is being honored for her leadership by the Student Involvement and Leadership Center at a breakfast ceremony before graduation.

Hansen, currently the editor of the chapter newsletter, is slated to be a nominee for the next chapter president with Schenk’s departure.

Campbell is the champion of service projects for the chapter. He has recently started a service project with Sustainable Futures and will be soliciting current MBA students to help with the project in the spring.

“When I think of the annual Net Impact international conference held this year in Baltimore, I can’t help but feel the same enthusiasm, passion and dedication that radiated throughout the weekend and all of the 3,000 attendees,” Campbell said in a statement.

The chapter is also connecting with Think Boise First for a potential service project, hosting a monthly speaker series and will help students in the International Business Organization (IBO) prepare for the Consortium for Undergraduate International Business Education (CUIBE) conference being held on campus February 7-9.

Net Impact Boise State leaders are looking to move their chapter forward with the ideas fostered at the conference, their speaker series and involvement on campus and in the community. For information on joining Net Impact Boise State see: http://cobe.boisestate.edu/netimpact/how-to-join/.

A COBE Signature Student has:

• A strong knowledge of, and an intense interest in, business and/or economics
• Effective communication skills
• Problem-solving aptitude
• A passion for learning
• Strong leadership abilities
• Ethical behavior personally and professionally

Congratulations to the following students who have received this outstanding distinction:

Congratulations to the following students for being selected for COBE’s Student Spotlight for the months of November and December.

• Nicholas Stobbe – MBA
• Ben Mueller – MSA
• Anjanette Call – Accountancy
• Michael Bergloff – Economics
• Ryan McMillen – Entrepreneurship Management
• J. Cameron Clark – Finance
• Melody Armstrong – General Business Management
• Kayla Cuvelier – Human Resource Management
• Dawn Schmidt – Information Technology Management
• Kiley Zanecki – International Business
• Coree Carver – Marketing
• Roman Agafonov – Supply Chain Management
  

Although the race was a collective group effort, individual competitiveness was displayed. Angela surprised even herself with how fast she ran her 2-mile lap, Laura (running the anchor leg) refused to be overtaken by another racer and sprinted the last 50 yards to the finish line, and Krista stayed to the bitter end of the raffle in hopes of hearing her number drawn (she won a prize!).  Jeanne most accurately predicted her individual finish time (within 13 seconds).

Alas, despite a valiant effort, the MBA Group Project completed the course over 4 minutes faster than its predicted time and failed to place. It was, however, one of the most stylish teams on the course.

In the picture left to right are Jeanne Jackson-Heim, Laura Mattern, Angela Reynolds, Krista Lyons.

Congratulations to the following students for being selected for COBE’s Student Spotlight for the months of September and October.

• Christopher Juchau – MBA
• Karris Kimball – MSAT
• Sanja Lazic – Accountancy
• Jesse Rosenthal – Economics
• Kindra Schell – Entrepreneurship Management
• Alexandra Lee – Finance
• Erasmo Castro – General Business Management
• Christopher Lynch – Human Resource Management
• Jacob Blaylock – Information Technology Management
• Geoffrey Moore – International Business
• Stacey Malek – Marketing
• John Hunter – Supply Chain Management

Watch the video.

The program provides colleges and universities with $50,000 per school to be invested in the markets over the year. Boise State’s team posted an astounding return of 46.25 percent, earning about 14 percent more in returns than the second place finisher. Only six of the 20 participating schools ended with gains exceeding 5 percent.

The program gives senior-level business students a hands-on education in investing and portfolio management. The students who participated in the  finance 460-461 class were:

Kori Gibbs

Barbara Gladfelter

Matthew Henderson

Chaz Johnson

Kelly Lawton

David Lowder

Shawn McFarland

Adriana Villafana Barajas

All students participated in the buy and sell decisions. Matthew Henderson and Shawn McFarland had primary responsibility for research and presentations.

The student teams use real money, pay execution costs and earn returns on investments in securities. The schools also share in the profits. The teams make investment decisions with a D.A. Davidson financial consultant as adviser and each school receives one-half of its team’s earnings above 5 percent, to spend as it chooses. D.A. Davidson lends the schools the initial $50,000 investment and absorbs any losses they might incur.

Boise State business students also had the highest returns in 2006 and 2003. D.A. Davidson launched the 27th annual Student Investment Program earlier this month and Boise State is a participant.

See the outcome of the investments for school year 2011-2012.

Badr Altamimy — International Business

Grant Band — Master of Science in Accountancy Taxation

Drew Bisterfeldt — Information Technology Management

Heike Brown — Supply Chain Management

Beth Brune — General Business Management

Nikolina Dragicevic — Human Resource Management

Nicholas Duncan — Entrepreneurship Management

George Fenton — Economics

Thomas Golden — Accountancy

Matthew Henderson — Finance

Dustin Klein — Marketing

Pete Roberts — Master of Business Administration

Eric Schuler — Economics

Glenda Smith — Master of Science in Accountancy

Also chosen each year are Signature Students. This years recipients are:

William Baker — General Business Management

Megan Blanchard — Marketing

Heike Brown — Supply Chain Management

Nikolina Dragicevic — Human Resource Management

Alexandria Johnson — Marketing

Nicole Katsuki — Finance

Kayleigh Knapp — General Business Management

Alex Yeggy — Accountancy

The annual induction ceremony followed where 48 students became members of the nation’s top business honor society. Beta Gamma Sigma is the international honor society serving business programs accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest recognition a business student anywhere in the world can receive in a business program accredited by AACSB International.

For more information on the Beta Gamma Sigma organization at Boise State University: http://cobe.boisestate.edu/betagammasigma/