Voting under way for Poole College’s AICPA team; their goal: Top 3

Global Lobos, Poole College’s team in the 2015 AICPA Case Competition, has advanced to the semi-finals in this year’s annual national AICPA challenge for undergraduate accounting students. Now, it's time to vote them into the top three. 

Video entries presenting each of the 14 semi-finalists’ case solutions are available for viewing on the AICPA website. You can view all entries and vote for the Global Lobos team here. Voting is open to anyone interested in the competition.

2015 Case: Next-stage strategy for a toy company

This year's annual case competition – hosted by the AICPA as part of its “This Way to CPA” program for accounting students – began with 80 teams of full time undergraduate students at two-year and four-year colleges, community colleges and universities in the United States, from Portland to Puerto Rico and points in between. 

Their challenge: To develop a next-stage strategy for the co-founders of a high quality, cutting-edge electronic toys company, so that they could move their entrepreneurial venture to the next level.

Representing Poole College is the team Global Lobos. Members are Pablo Heitman, team captain, and Morgan Wilson, Iryna Kharlamova and Justin Koenig, all accounting seniors. Heitman and Koenig are in the financial analytics concentration. Wilson is in internal auditing and Kharlamova, information systems

The 2015 AICPA Accounting Competition provides students the opportunity to display their business acumen and hone their strategic savvy as they help the fictitious toy company – Gizmo – make the best possible changes through a complex company crossroad.

The semi-finalist team videos express the members' opinions and ideas regarding the possible future for Gizmo. The judges select the teams with the most promising plans for the fictional company’s future to advance to the semi-finals. The list of school teams in the semi-finals follows.

Online voting for the best solution presented in the team videos – which continues through November 11 – will determine which three teams will get to the final round. Each of the top three teams will walk away with $10,000 and compete for cash for their colleges. Finalists will be announced on November 13. 

“Competitions like this enable our students to apply their classroom learning to real world scenarios,” said Gilroy Zuckerman, professor of accounting and faculty advisor for this year’s team. “The students on the Global Lobos team have excelled at combining their research skills, critical thinking skills, team skills, and presentation skills in preparing an outstanding case solution.”

That perspective is reflected in the following comment, submitted as a collaborative note by the team members regarding their involvement in this experience. The comment was submitted by their team captain.

“We entered the competition because we wanted the hands-on real world business experience that is hard to simulate in a classroom environment. Through this experience, we have learned to respect all of the unique talents our teammates bring to the table, whether they be amazing presentation skills, or creative ideas, they all help in the end. We believe that every student could benefit from participating in a case competition. Regardless of how well your team does, you will learn a lot through researching your case, applying what you've learned in your classes, and interacting with the knowledgeable faculty of Poole College.”

Following are this year’s semi-finalist teams and their schools. 

2015 semi-finalists

• Accounting is my LIFO | University of Texas at Dallas
• Accounting Owls | University of Puerto Rico at Humacao
• Augustana Avengers | Augustana College
• Champlain Consultants | University of Vermont
• Clarkson Golden Knights | Clarkson University
• Ellsworth Green & Gold | The College at Brockport, State University of New York
• Extraordinary Gaines-ville | University of Florida
• Global Lobos | North Carolina State University
• GoStockton | Stockton University
• Let’s Get Fiscal | University of Kansas
• NorthWest Accountants | University of Portland
• REBELLionaires | University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• The Centennials | Prairie View A&M University
• The IncrediREBELS | University of Nevada, Las Vegas