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Student Achievements Celebrated

The 18 students in this new, one year international dual degree program will also receive a master’s degree the Universitè Paul Cèzanne IAE Graduate School of Management, in Puyricard near Aix-en-Provence, France.

At the far end of the spectrum, in terms of number of graduates, were the 348 individuals receiving bachelor’s degrees in business administration. Of these, 17 were nominated by faculty for the College of Management Board of Advisors Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award.

Undergraduate Student Honorees

Following are the 2009 nominees for the college’s Board of Advisors Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award: Andrew Don Betz, Christopher Beck Nunn Bishop, Garrett John Dimond, Somer Quinn Hall, Caroline Virginia Keim, Katherine Elizabeth Merrick, John Conrad Mickey Jr., Dana Michael Paratore, Delana Jayne Parker, John Nathan Pearce, Katherine Alexandra Plichta, Andrew Bryce Reynolds, John Mark Shindledecker, Barrett Lyndsay Slade, Andrew David Slatter, Molly Elizabeth Tully, and Ashleigh Christina Watts.

The award was presented to Katherine Alexandra Plichta by David C. Morgan, executive vice president and chief banking officer of Capital bank and member of the college’s Board of Advisors, and Shannon Davis, associate dean for undergraduate programs at the college.

Plichta graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s in business administration with a concentration in operations and supply chain management and a minor in accounting. She interned with JLB Partners in Washington, D.C., for almost two years, where she assisted with negotiations involving multi-million dollar real estate transactions. While earning her degree, Plichta served as primary caregiver for her mother through a three-and-a-half year battle with leukemia.

Since her mother’s passing in April 2008, Plichta has raised over $10,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and is finishing a book begun by her mother to spread her message of hope despite adversity. Plichta has decided to pursue a law degree to act on her conviction that leadership can change lives and the world. She intends to accomplish this through contributing to the establishment of humanitarian policies for developing countries.

The college also recognized eight students as its highest ranking seniors.

  • Jacob Lee Case (Mayodan, NC): major in accounting, finance concentration. Case was a University Scholar and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. He has completed internships with Sageworks in the product development area, Wet n’ Wild Waterpark as an accounting clerk, and State Employees’ Credit Union as a loan servicing assistant. He has been accepted into the NC State Jenkins Graduate School Master of Accounting Program and will begin in June.
  • Kristen English Frankel (Mooresville, NC): major in business administration, finance concentration. While in the College of Management, Frankel studied abroad in France and completed an internship at Tilt 360, Inc. After graduation, she plans to pursue a master’s in healthcare administration and an MBA. She is currently employed by Showpiece Enterprises.
  • Mary Marlowe Higginbotham (Gastonia, NC): major in business administration, finance concentration. Higginbotham is a Park Scholar and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. She has interned as a public accountant with Gray, Layton, Kersh, Solomon and Smith, P.A. and with Greer and Walker, LLP. After graduation Mary plans to pursue her master in accounting at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
  • Ryne Neil McCall (Asheville, NC): majors in economics, computer engineering and electrical engineering. McCall is a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He completed an internship with Cisco Systems and a two-semester co-op with Tekelec. He has accepted a position with Tekelec as a platform design verification test engineer.
  • Molly Elizabeth McCloskey: (Columbia, SC): major in accounting, managerial accounting concentration; minor, economics. McCloskey is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. She completed two summer accounting internships with Kellogg’s in Cary. She has accepted a position with Kroger Manufacturing in their Career Training Program for finance and accounting and is moving to Indianapolis after graduation.
  • Adam Wade Robinson (Smithfield, NC): majors in business administration and accounting, finance concentration; minor, Spanish. In recognition of his outstanding academic achievements, he was selected to receive the College of Management Boeing Scholarship for the 2008-2009 academic year. He also obtained a summer internship with Credit Suisse as an operations analyst. Robinson has been accepted into the NC State Jenkins Graduate School’s Master of Accounting Program and will begin in June.
  • Todd Hagan Smalling (Johnson City, TN): major in business administration, finance concentration; minor, economics. Smalling is a Park Scholar, a member of the university’s cross country and track team and served as vice president of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society. He served the university in many ways, including representing the student body to the university’s Board of Trustees and athletic scholarship donors. He studied abroad in Italy and interned with J.P. Morgan on Wall Street, all while managing to graduate in only three years. He has accepted a position with J.P. Morgan’s Equity Derivatives Trading group in New York.
  • Matthew Jeffrey Weyenberg (Mooresville, NC): major in business administration, finance and information technology concentrations; minor, accounting. In recognition of his outstanding academic achievements, Weyenberg was selected to receive the College of Management Hensley Scholarship for the 2008-2009 academic year.

The following graduate students received Outstanding Student Awards.

Outstanding Economics Graduate Student Award: Omer Cihan

Cihan received a bachelor of science degree in economics from the Hacettepe University in Turkey in 2001. He has worked at the Turkish Treasury as a treasury expert since 2001 addressing the regulation of foreign exchange transactions and relationships to capital movements. After completing the master of economics degree at NC State, Omer will resume his position with the Turkish Treasury and further his career as an economist specializing in public economics, either in Turkey or in an international organization.

Jenkins Graduate School Outstanding MAC Student Award: Carey Ellen Stewart

Stewart received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from NC State University’s College of Management. As an undergraduate, Carey was on the Dean’s List every semester and graduated with a 3.98 GPA. She was president of the College of Management Peer Leaders, VP of marketing for the Society for Human Resource Management and social chair for Beta Alpha Psi. She participated in internships with RH Donnelley, Barbara H. Fulp & Co., and Dixon Hughes. A natural leader both in and out of the classroom, Carey was chosen to serve as president of the MAC student organization. After graduation, Carey will begin working full-time as an audit associate for Dixon Hughes in Raleigh.

Jenkins Graduate School Outstanding MBA Student Award, Full Time Program: Karen Bell

Bell graduates with concentrations in marketing and innovation management with a 3.9 GPA and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. She served as a leader with the NC State Net Impact chapter. In that role, she was instrumental in executing the Making Business Work for People, Planet and Profit symposium held in spring 2009. Working with faculty and fellow students, she spearheaded a spring break course that took students to Peru in March for service projects and small business consulting. Bell earned her undergraduate degree from UNC Chapel Hill in Public Health and worked previously at RTI International.

Jenkins Graduate School Outstanding MBA Student Award, Part-Time Program: Christian Francis Caron

Caron graduates with concentrations in marketing and finance with a 3.9 GPA, and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. As part of his academic program, Caron led several highly successful team projects including a retailing sector analysis for SunTrust, a marketing plan for Monsanto SmartStax, and a marketing analytics project for Dodge Viper. Caron earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland College Park and has worked at Telelogic (recently acquired by IBM) while in the MBA program. He served as a part-time MBA student ambassador and a student representative at prospective student information sessions.

Jenkins Graduate School Outstanding MGIM Student Award: Lauren Blair Crumpler

Crumpler graduated cum laude from NC State with a degree in chemical engineering with a concentration in biomolecular engineering and a minor in biotechnology before entering the MGIM program last year. At that time, she had already worked with companies such as Novartis, Amgen, and Dow Chemical. She recently accepted a position with Novartis in Marburg, Germany where she will work with a group of international engineers to develop a pandemic flu vaccine.

Following are the number of degrees awarded this spring, by academic program.

  • Economics: Doctor of Economics, 5; Master of Economics, 22; Bachelor of Arts in Economics, 13; Bachelor of Science in Economics, 20
  • Accounting: Master of Accounting, 81; Bachelor of Science in Accounting, 89
  • Business Administration: Master of Business Administration: 98; Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, 348
  • Master of Global Innovation Management: 18

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