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Student Achievements
team of Five advances to national xact competition Finals
FiVe VsB stuDents Won First Place in tHe oncampus division of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Extreme Accounting (xACT) Competition and qualified to represent VSB in the national competition in New York City. The “Mindsweepers” team of alYssa Mazzarini ’14 VSB, MattHeW santoriello ’14 VSB, ariana WeiHn ’14 VSB, DaPHne laM ’13 VSB, and ali GalGano ’12 VSB, with faculty advisor Kenneth Hiltebeitel, won $1,000 as the on-campus winners and $10,000 as one of five national winners.
The xACT challenge is a high-level case competition that tests students’ critical thinking, decision making, teamwork, time management, and presentation skills. Each team is given two weeks to develop a case solution to a real-world accounting issue, which they then present to a panel of PwC representatives. The winning team from each school is considered for the national finals, but only five teams are chosen to compete. Villanova University is one of the five schools to advance, along with Providence College, University of California—Berkeley, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Washington.
“Being among the national finalists at the xACT competition helped us establish a relationship with PwC on a personal level, which would have been hard to achieve in a typical networking event,” said Lam. “The most rewarding part of this competition is at the end of the day when everyone involved becomes our friends.”
Assistant Professor of Management James Klingler Joseph Mancari, VSB ‘09
Ali Galgano ’12 VSB, Alyssa Mazzarini ’14 VSB, Ariana Weihn ’14 VSB, Daphne Lam ’13 VSB, and Matthew Santoriello ’14 VSB won $10,000 and advanced to the national finals of the PwC xAct Competition. Kenneth Hiltebeitel, PhD, advised the student team.
“The xACT competition exposed me to so many different aspects of the business world,” said Mazzarini. “It improved my public speaking skills and gave me experience in presenting an idea to a group of executives. Being a national finalist was a great honor, and I feel very accomplished after all the work our group put into the competition.”
real estate scholarships awarded to VsB students
Emily Dinovo ’12 VSB
Two VSB students won national scholarships from the Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network. eMilY DinoVo ’12 VSB and kristen killeen ’12 VSB were two of just ten students who received $10,000 grants, and were the first-ever winners from the Philadelphia area. As part of the scholarship, Dinovo and Killeen also received internship positions with commercial real estate organizations.
“I am honored to receive an award that not only will help support my academic experience in business, but will also provide me with practical experience in the real estate industry,” said Dinovo. “Not many scholarships also provide their winners with internships. This opportunity helps pave the way for women in a traditionally male-dominated industry.”
The CREW Network is a premier business networking organization specifically designed to support women in the commercial real estate industry. The scholarship program was launched in 2008 and distributes $100,000 annually to ten undergraduate students.
These scholarships are just one way that the CREW Network helps women prepare for success in commercial real estate. They also provide mentoring, leadership development, and professional training for women in all stages of their career. The CREW Network hopes that by supporting the achievements of women, they will help diversify the industry as well as influence its success.
Kristen Killeen ’12 VSB
VsB student receives the siM Future leader award
nisHant MeHta ’11 VSB won the Society for Information Management (SIM) Future Leader Award for outstanding achievement and potential for leadership in the Information Systems field. SIM is an association of senior IT executives, prominent academicians, and other IT thought leaders who come together to share and enhance their rich intellectual capital.
Mehta was recognized for his academic excellence and leadership capacity. During his time at Villanova, Mehta worked as a resident assistant, a peer advisor, and a peer tutor for the Gamma Phi Business Honors Society. He was also an active member of the Management Information Systems Society, an executive board member of the Model United Nations Club, and a council member of the International Business Society. As part of a course project, Mehta and a team of students proposed new product lines and product extensions for the Tasty Baking Company, their presentation winning first place. During the inaugural Global Accounting Firms Case Competition, Mehta’s team placed among the finalists.
Mehta graduated cum laude in May 2011 with a major in Management Information Systems and minors in Finance and History. He now works as a business technology analyst with Deloitte Consulting LLP in Philadelphia, PA.
Two student teams from Villanova won prizes in the 2012 TradeKing Challenge: Piotr Kuczaj ’13 VSB, Sarah Choi ’14 VSB, Eric Chen ’12 COE, Peter Schrader ’12 COE, and Gary Dawes ’12 VSB (not pictured, Michael Carney ’13 VSB).
Villanova students Win Division in campus challenge
a GrouP oF unDerGraDuate Finance MaJors Won the eastern division of the TradeKing API Campus Challenge, a semester-long competition for business students that provides real-life experience developing investment-focused web and mobile applications. The challenge provides a forum for collaboration between academia and financial services industry leaders such as TradeKing, an online broker-dealer, to foster creativity and awareness of innovative entrepreneurial possibilities around Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The 2012 TradeKing Challenge leveraged the innovative concept of classroom crowdsourcing to encourage students to develop new applications using the TradeKing API.
“This competition allowed us to extend ourselves beyond our traditional boundaries and recognize relevant skills needed in today’s marketplace,” said Professor of Management Information Systems Sue Metzger, the faculty advisor for this challenge. “This competition required the students to challenge themselves technically and think creatively while depending on their business acumen. Not one of these students had ever programmed an application before, but with a little bit of training, support from TradeKing, and exploring existing tools available over the Internet, our students were able to effectively ‘mash-up’ data from multiple sources. This opportunity prepared them for their future demands — the need to integrate different data sources in a meaningful way to solve someone’s problem. They learned that the technology itself is not the barrier; the hardest part was being business savvy and creative enough with the resources at hand to make an impactful solution.”
Nearly 30 teams from universities across the U.S. competed in the TradeKing API Campus Challenge, and the winners were announced during a live streaming event that demonstrated the top seven applications. Villanova’s “Stock Portfolio Manager” team of saraH cHoi ’14 VSB, Piotr kuczaJ ’13 VSB, and MicHael carneY ’13 VSB, was the school winner and the eastern divisional winner, receiving $5000. Additionally, GarY DaWes ’12 VSB, eric cHen ’12 COE, and Peter scHraDer ’12 COE, of Villanova’s “TK Dash” team, won a special Chairman’s Prize for developing a distinguished app that did not win an overall category or division. The top apps from the Campus Challenge are featured alongside professionallydeveloped apps in TradeKing’s new Application Gallery.
