Business students secure first place with analysis of waste company
When University of Houston-Victoria student Jessica Franco began her morning ritual of checking her emails, the graduating senior began to tear up.
Not from disappointment, but from pure joy. She had just learned that her team had placed first in this semester’s UHV College of Business’s Bachelor of Business Administration Case Conference.
“I witnessed how students in the winning team met frequently online during the semester to work on their project, including industry and market analyses as well as discussing the firm strategy and capabilities,” said Kaveh McAdam, associate professor in the UHV College of Business. “As they were making progress on the project, I provided them with several rounds of feedback, and I was impressed with the amount of work they put into revising their analyses and improving their project.”
As part of the Management 4309 Capstone course, the BBA Case Conference is held once each semester. Throughout the course, in addition to working on the classroom content, students are expected to conduct an in-depth analysis of a publicly traded company. This hands-on project allows students to apply the business concepts and analytical skills they have developed during their studies to a real-world organization.
“The BBA conference is a special event because the College of Business invites some of our outstanding alumni and several community partners to help college faculty members in judging the presentations,” McAdam said.
This semester, a total of 134 students competed in 27 separate teams. The conference was held over Microsoft Teams.
“The team was all excited when we found out the results,” Franco said. “I immediately jumped into the team’s group chat and started messaging them and letting them know, ‘Guys! We made it.’”
This semester, the competing teams looked into Waste Management, Inc., a waste management and environmental services company based in Houston. The team looked into the strengths and weaknesses of the company, and the team’s success came after weeks of dedicated preparation, including weekly meetings that often extended well beyond their initial schedules, Franco said.
“With all of my educational journey, I will say this has been the best group that I have ever worked with when working in team assignments or projects,” Franco said. “Everybody worked together, we all stepped into each other’s role whenever someone needed help, and we all jumped in to support one another.”
On the day of the virtual presentation, the team’s confidence was good knowing that their work had been meticulously prepared using Canva and PowerPoint in an attempt to impress the judges and highlight the team’s comprehensive research and analytical capabilities, Franco said.
For Franco, the victory of securing first place is more than just an academic achievement. Four out of the six members of the group are going to be graduating this May, and two of them are going on to continue their education, she said.
“This has been the best way to end my degree journey,” Franco said. “This has been the best experience for me to end with, especially going through all of the hard work and coming out winning first, it’s been a great experience.”
Members of the winning team for the spring BBA Case Conference were Reva Hackworth of Plano, Evelin Hernandez of Houston, Julie Norton and Osiel Robledo of Victoria and Rosemary Rodriguez and Jessica Franco of Katy.
Other teams that were placed in the BBA Case Conference were:
- Second place – Samantha Cisneros of Victoria, Katerina Hamdan and Lydia Le of Katy, Rylee Stoeltje of Needville and Cole Story of Richmond.
- Third place – Andrea Ochoa of Stafford and John Omojuwa and Bindya Vijayakumar of Richmond.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.