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STUDENT NEWS
MBA Students Take Second in National Case Consulting Competition for Mission Federal Credit Union
SDSU MBA students placed second in the “graduate - specialized” category of the Small Business Institute's (SBI) Annual Field Case of the Year Competition. The award was presented in Orlando in January at the SBI's annual meeting, co-hosted by the U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
The marketing study, supervised by marketing professor Don Sciglimpaglia and IDS professor Gretchen Vik, was conducted for Mission Federal Credit Union, a San Diego-based firm. The project involved a study to increase the company's Gen Y consumer acquisition over the 5-10 year period.
"Working with our team of students proved extremely rewarding and beneficial,” said CEO of Mission Federal Services Tom Leyva. “Based on the findings of the team, we developed a microsite with a unique, distinctive look and feel targeted to Gen Y which we branded 'Generation Next.' The research revealed that Gen Y like to educate themselves, so we provided content on the GenNext site which gives information on financial products and services, interactive online tools such as calculators, online account opening access, and personal finance articles. Future enhancements call for additional interactive tools, live chat and blogging.”
The team, comprised of four SDSU graduate students (Darren Greenhalgh, Keiichi Hashikawa, Sarah Scannell and Tood Tarplee), began the study by breaking the project into five smaller objectives. Each objective incorporated secondary research from credible institutions such as Jupiter, Celent, Filene, and Forrester, credit-union specific publications such as various issues of Credit Union Magazine, as well as five individual interviews.
The students also conducted customer and potential customer research, analyzed the market, examined growth potential, and assessed trends and competition. In the end, they were expected to use the findings and conclusions of the study to formulate the required action plan for Mission Federal Credit Union.
Graduate student, Darren Greenhalgh, said, “The team SDSU selected for this effort worked extremely well together. We were all motivated, able to define functional responsibilities that complemented each of our individual expertise, and worked cohesively through the suggestions and evaluation of each others individual work. As a team we brought it all together. The structure of the program was beneficial as well. Without the defined milestones, examples, deadlines, and help from our advisors we wouldn't have been able to get all this work done in the 16 weeks we were given.”
The Annual Field Case of the Year Competition, sponsored by the Small Business Institute Directors Association, is designed to recognize outstanding student work on field cases. These field case projects provide students opportunities to help make lasting improvements in their client's business operations.
This is the sixth consecutive year that an SDSU MBA final consulting project supervised by Sciglimpaglia has placed first or second in the competition. In 2001, a project conducted for San Diego Magazine won the competition, followed by first place awards for projects conducted for the San Diego Downtown YMCA in 2002 and for Pharmatek, Inc. in 2006.
In addition to the project for Pharmatek, which won the SBI competition, two other graduate teams supervised by Sciglimpaglia also won national competitions last year. One, a marketing research study conducted for Honda, which helped position the introduction of the new Honda Fit. The other was an international research competition sponsored by the Moroccan American Trade and Investment Council to assist the Kingdom of Morocco's efforts to promote economic growth and stability through its private sector.
Centre for Integrated Marketing Communications Hosts National Competition
The Centre for IMC hosted a national competition in Integrated Marketing Communications in December. Fifty-two colleges and universities competed in the development of an IMC plan for the country of Morocco, with the five finalists presenting at SDSU. Teams placed as follows: First place team was Bellevue University ($3000 and trip to Morocco); Second was Johnson & Wales ($2000); and third was Virginia Tech ($1000). The judging panel consisted of representatives from the country of Morocco and SDSU IMC faculty.
Accounting Students Provide Income Tax Assistance to the Community
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is an nationally recognized IRS program that gives SDSU accounting student volunteers the opportunity to assist low income taxpayers ($40,000 and below) with filing their tax returns. The annual tax-filing season each spring provides opportunities for accounting majors to gain hands-on experience preparing income tax returns. The program has been in existence for over 30 years.
SDSU's VITA program will prepare federal, state and city income tax returns, without charge, for anyone meeting certain financial guidelines. The service is provided on a first-come, first-served basis and returns are prepared while you wait. VITA's services are provided every Saturday from February 10 to April 7, 2007 from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the Business Administration (BA) building on the first floor in room BA-113.
SDSU accounting students are trained and certified by the IRS to prepare the tax returns. Volunteers of the program perform a variety of duties; while some prepare income tax returns, others assist clients with intake questions. VITA stresses critical thinking, analysis, and the development of excellent communication skills. Volunteers also develop interviewing skills on confidential matters, and learn to investigate with a human relations dimension.
So far in 2007, VITA has prepared 44 returns, 39 e-filed returns. Approximately $570, 277 in taxes have been filed and about $21,649 have been refunded to the participants. In 2006, for the complete filing season (2005 tax returns), 288 returns were filed with $4,194,683 and $159,354 in refunds.
Since many of the program taxpayers are students, SDSU VITA handles a substantial amount of education tax benefits. The Lifetime Learning Credit allows taxpayers to claim a maximum credit equal to 20 percent of up to $10,000 of expenses incurred during the taxable year for qualified tuition and fees for eligible students for post-secondary education. VITA also has the Hope Scholarship Credit which allows taxpayers to claim a maximum credit of $1,500 for expenses paid on behalf of the taxpayer, the taxpayer's spouse, or a dependent for the first two years of post-secondary education at an eligible institution.
For more information on the program, visit http://vita.sdsu.edu. |
