CNU Small Business Institute Program and Luter School students sweep National Case of the Year competition
Luter School SBI Program is voted “Showcase” Award

News Release - Feb. 2, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact:
Carolyn Cuthrell
Office of Communications and Public Relations
carolyn.cuthrell@cnu.edu
(757) 594-7331

(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — For the third consecutive year, students in the Small Business Institute (SBI) Program at Christopher Newport University's Joseph W. Luter, III School of Business have won top honors in a national business consulting competition. The SBI Program itself was also recognized as a “Showcase” Award winner, an honor that recognizes an outstanding small business program in the nation.

The students in the Small Business Institute Program won Best Undergraduate Case of the Year for each award category: Best Comprehensive and Best Specialized. They presented at the joint conference of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Small Business Institute in Orlando, Florida.

This is the third straight year that CNU has won a prestigious first place award and the first time CNU has swept both award categories.

The two winning student teams included recent CNU graduates Karl Hedlund, Jeff Bizub, Christy Rich, Felissa Jeter, Megan Gardner, and Michael Merichko; and Becky Boerschel, Spencer Newman, Melina Paynter, Henry (Casey) O’Grady, and Michael Goldberg.

The “Case of the Year” award is the most significant honor bestowed upon the competitive written projects. CNU student consulting teams completed their projects under the supervision of Dr. Stephanie Bardwell, director of the SBI Program, who teaches the SBI course as a writing intensive, field-based consulting class. Each team produced a professionally executed written project designed to assist small business owners in every area of business: accounting, finance, management, marketing, information technology and legal. Students based the final written “case” project upon original research conducted on both the industry and the specific small firms located in Hampton Roads, using best practices to diagnose and implement effective business solutions that would improve each business enterprise.

The Small Business Institute is the premier professional association of small business educators. Its mission is “to strengthen the small business/entrepreneurship sector of the free enterprise system, provide entrepreneurship education and support economic development and diversification through teaching, consulting, training and field research with small businesses and local communities.”

Dr. Bardwell’s website regarding the SBI at CNU may be found at: http://smallbusinessinstitute.cnu.edu/

Dr. Bardwell accepted the honors on behalf of the SBI Program and students in an awards ceremony during the conference. The conference was attended by over 500 educators, entrepreneurs and academicians in Orlando, Florida during the USASBE/SBI national meeting, January 9-15, 2007.