Seniors Erika Lamanna and Garrett Pittenger represented Elon this fall in the university’s first ever appearance at the Eller Ethics Case Competition, a prestigious national contest in which the duo advanced to the semifinals before their elimination from the sixth annual event.
The “invitation only” competition fielded 22 teams from many of the top ranked undergraduate business schools in North America. Hosted by the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, the competition “exposes students to a timely business ethics case they could face in their professional careers.”
Teams analyze, present information and respond to questions posed by judges. The 2008 scenario required competitors to advise the Arizona governor whether she should support the proposed re-opening of a dormant copper mine, given potential adverse impacts on the environment and surrounding community.
“This case competition was an excellent means of applying what we have learned the past three years in the classroom/extracurricular activities about presenting, researching, and critical reasoning, to an interesting, real life scenario,” Pittenger said. “It was also a great opportunity to network with students and faculty at other top schools.”
Lamanna, an economics major, and Pittenger, a business administration and finance/accounting double major, were credited by the organizers of the competition as having one of the most creative and innovative approaches to the case through their application of a cutting edge “sustainable mining” framework.
Concordia University in Quebec won the overall competition.
“I hope many more Elon students will have the opportunity to participate in such case competitions in order to gain that real-life experience of solving difficult problems,” Lamanna said.
– Written by Michaela Walker, program assistant, Martha and Spencer Love School of Business