Summer Scholars students continue research by presenting in Orlando

In early October, Dr. Simon Medcalfe, associate professor of finance and director of the MBA program at the James M. Hull College of Business at Georgia Regents University, and three undergraduate students went to the North American Case Research Association conference in Orlando to present their research on the Augusta Training Shop’s snowflake fundraiser.

As part of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURS) Summer Scholars Program, an undergraduate research program sponsored by the Office of the Provost; Dr. Carol Rychly, vice president for academic and faculty affairs; and Dr. Michael Diamond, senior vice president for research, Dantavious Whitaker, Alisia Holsey and Kelsey Smith worked to help the Augusta Training Shop, a local nonprofit that employees adults with mental and physical disabilities, understand the full cost of its popular fundraiser.

First, they presented their findings to the Training Shop’s board, then to the academics in Orlando, at what is known to be the top case research conference in North America.

“Not only did they do the presentations and get feedback on the case, but they fully embraced the conference itself by listening to other presentations,” Medcalfe said. “They had a good time, and they learned a lot.”

While the presentation opportunity was very beneficial for the students, Medcalfe plans to continue working with the students to get the study published in a journal as well.

“That way, when they go on the job market, they can say they presented, they’ve written and they’ve done lots of different things out there beyond just going to class, taking the exam and writing a paper,” Medcalfe said. “And if you’ve already got a published paper under your belt before you go to graduate school, how much better do you look than many other people out there?”

The trip’s funding came from Hull College and from the Office of Faculty Development.