WATERVILLE — A team of students from Thomas College was named the Society for Advancement of Management International Collegiate Business Skills Champions, having competed in the open division at the virtual 76th annual Society for Advancement of Management International Business Conference.
This series of competitions, reaching back more than 40 years, provides an opportunity for students to showcase existing skills and further develop fundamental skills for business success.
Thomas College students Chris Paradis of Skowhegan, Steele Young of Freeport, and Tiffany White of Barnstead, New Hampshire, competed against colleges and universities internationally.
Dr. Dan Leland, Thomas College business professor and advisor of the team, said, “The competition results show that Thomas College provides a quality business education and when presented the opportunity, the ability to compete with any school in the country. The students on this team have inspired and impressed the faculty here at Thomas and did the same to the judges and professionals at the SAM international event. I spent over 20 years coaching high school and collegiate sports; this is the first group of national champions I have had the privilege of working with, and I couldn’t be prouder,” according to a news release from the college.
Student competitors competed in five business competitions designed to engage students in the application and practice of classroom learning to real-world challenges. The International Collegiate Business Skills Championships is comprised of five events, the Extemporaneous Speech, Business Knowledge Bowl, Business Pitch, Written Case Study, and Presentation Case Study Competitions. Teams are scored by academic and industry professionals that have real-world experience in leadership and management. Teams and individual awards are recognized by the society for outstanding performance overall and separately in each competition segment.
The Thomas College team placed first overall in the open division, first in written case, second in presentation, second in business pitch (Young), third in knowledge bowl (White), second in overall points (White).
“I am proud of the accomplishments of the Thomas College SAM chapter because we were competing against top talent across the country, and we were confident in ourselves and our school. We saw this as an amazing opportunity, so we put forth our best effort and ensured that we were having fun in the process,” said White.
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