CNU’s Luter School of Business Students Win National Small Business Institute^® Case Study Competition

(Newport News, Va.) - CNU's Small Business Institute ^® (SBI) has grown from a bright spot in the Luter Business School curriculum to one of its crown jewels, as students received top awards for the fifth consecutive year in a national case study competition. The winning teams included CNU business students Danielle Caroll, Nick Scherer, Jessica Burke, Jennifer Needham, Megain Spain, Christina Bersing, Brad Davis, Joseph Gannon, Luke Jensen and Cynthia Watterson.

SBI^® is offered by undergraduate and graduate schools nationwide. Senior-level business students provide business owners with workable, practical, and feasible short-term solutions to complex business problems. Common types of assistance offered include business plans, management & human resources plans, marketing plans, market research studies, legal & regulatory plans, corporate philanthropy plans, and promotional plans; accounting, financial, operational, and business systems analysis; and website development.

SBI’s recent case studies of Big Daddy Sauce Inc. and First Tee Virginia Peninsula placed second and third for Comprehensive Case of the Year and Business Plan Case of the Year categories, respectively. “Our student teams competed among several hundred students in this annual SBI^® national competition,” said Dr. Patrick Walker, director of SBI^® and professor of management and business law at CNU. “This is the fifth consecutive year that SBI^® has achieved significant placement in this highly competitive event, and speaks to the quality of work our students deliver as a commitment to helping small businesses succeed. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for students to see how businesses function in the real world and get their hands dirty in the process.”

SBI^® plans to include non-profit organizations among its future clients.

“We are encouraged to believe that synergies will result in the directions taken by SBI^® into the non-profit sector and CNU’s larger commitment to the local community via the operations of the Center for Service Learning and Social Entrepreneurship,” notes Luter School of Business Dean David Cleeton. “We know these complementarities will grow alongside the development of our new academic minor in civic engagement and social entrepreneurship.”

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A four-year public university in Newport News, Virginia, Christopher Newport University enrolls 5,000 students in rigorous academic programs through the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, and the College of Social Sciences including the Luter School of Business. CNU offers great teaching and small classes as well as an emphasis on leadership, civic engagement and honor. For more information about CNU and its programs, please visit www.cnu.edu.

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