Fisher Student Appointed as Undergraduate Student Trustee

Congratulations to Alex Swain , a dual degree student in Business and Allied Medical Professions, for being appointed as the Undergraduate Student Trustee to The Ohio State University Board of Trustees for a two-year term. In Fisher, Alex is involved with Undergraduate Business Council and the Business Administration Honors Contract Program. She has also been very involved with the Undergraduate Student Government, serving as Secretary of the USG Senate and as Chief of Staff. She coordinated the 2008 Student Involvement fair, is a Student Athlete Support Services Office (SASSO) tutor, and works as a research assistant at the OSU Medical Center. Good work, Alex!

Fisher Charity Ball

As a close to Fisher Pride Week, The Undergraduate Business Council hosted the first annual Fisher Charity Ball on Friday, May 15 from 8-11pm at the Faculty Club. The event was open to all students and we had 168 guests in attendance. Our very own Fisher Alumni and former UBC member, Teresa Smith, spoke at the ball about how St. Jude has impacted her life. Through ticket sales, raffle earnings and collected donations from Fisher Pride Week t-shirts, we raised about $2,500 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Undergraduate Business Council thanks all of those in attendance for making the first annual Fisher Charity Ball a success. We hope to see you all again next year for an even bigger and better event!

Business Students in OSU's New Synchronized-Skating Team

Synchronized skating is a large and fast-growing discipline consisting of eight to twenty figure skaters performing on the ice at one time. Teams skate together as a unit and perform competitive programs set to music. The OSU Synchronized Skating Team, a subset of the OSU Figure Skating Club, was co-founded by Sara Uhl (OSU graduate student and 07-08 Figure Skating Club President) and Whitney Ricco (OSU Senior, Marketing Major and 08-09 Figure Skating Club President). They began research, recruitment and budget construction back in January of 2008 to start the Team.

The ultimate goal for the team is to become a Varsity sport at Ohio State. After executing a national mail campaign and soliciting Columbus’ pool of local talent, 11 girls were recruited for the team, four of which are students in the Fisher College of Business: Emma Foxall (marketing), Whitney Ricco (marketing), Caitlin Skinder (international business), and Amber Sager (pre-business).

Senior Whitney Ricco, and Sara Uhl organized the club, designed uniforms and recruited head coach Megan Elasky - a product of the nation's most successful synchronized-skating program at Miami University in Oxford. Team members are responsible for paying for coaches, uniforms, travel expenses and practice time. This past year, Whitney Ricco worked with some Law professors at OSU and a tax advisor to incorporate the club to become a 501(c)(3) (tax-exempt) organization so that they can solicit for corporate sponsorship for next year to help out with expenses.

The team ended their competitive season by taking 2nd place at Miami. Support the team by purchasing a T-shirt with No. 37, representing its effort to become the university's 37th varsity sport.

FisherCARES celebrates over 1,000 Hours of Service

FisherCARES unites undergraduate business students through service opportunities and encourages students to volunteer. This organization currently volunteers at: Unverferth House, St. Joseph’s Montessori School, Windsor Academy, Habitat for Humanity, Faith Mission, Mid Ohio Food Bank, Franklin County Dog Shelter, and Relay for Life. On May 19, the students celebrated over 1,000 hours of service completed by the group’s 100 plus members. At the awards banquet, special members of the year were recognized for outstanding community service achievements: Ryan Daulton, Lauren Perry, and
Christine Nugent.

Students Honored at Pace Setters Awards Ceremony

On May 15, the following peer advisors and Undergraduate Programs and Advising student staff members were honored at Pace Setters Awards Ceremony: Launika Arya, Sarah Barga (Peer Advisor 08-09), Peter Carlson (French Connection Coordinator), Erin Colatrella, Becca Fiorini, Colleen Hurley (Auditor), and Andrea Thomas (Peer Advisor 08-09)

In addition, the following Peer Advisors won special awards:
(Pictured left to right)
Most outstanding junior award:
-Becca Fiorini
Most outstanding student in the graduating class:
-Tada Yamamoto
Most outstanding female senior:
-Ashley Verhoff

Pace Setters are Fisher College’s top students, selected on the basis of academic performance and demonstrated leadership ability. Please take a moment to congratulate these outstanding students! For the full list of award winners, visit http://fisher.osu.edu/organizations/pace-setters/past-recipients/2009/.

Kayali Wins First Place in Denman Undergraduate Research Forum

(Pictured left to right: Rakaan Kayali, Izumi Miyazaki, Kevin Roshak)
Rakaan Kayali, a graduating senior majoring in Finance won first place at The Denman Undergraduate Research Forum held on May 13 for his research titled, “The Viability of Islamic Banking as a Substitute for Interest Based Banking.” He competed against thirty other students in the category that included Business, Education, and Speech & Hearing. His faculty advisor for the project was Mona Makhija.

Other business students who presented their research at the Forum included: Kevin Roshak, “Performance Evaluation of Global Equity Managers,” advised by Andrew Karolyi; Kevin Bowen, “The Agent’s Choice: Budget Mechanisms with Verifiable Cost Signals,” advised by Richard Young; and Izumi Miyazaki (with Catherine Smithers, Psychology), “Is it Smart to be Nice? Examining Service Providers’ Competence and Worth,” advised by Shashi Matta.

The Denman Undergraduate Research Forum was created in 1996 and is a cooperative effort of The Ohio State University's Honors & Scholars Center, The Undergraduate Research Office, and The Office of Research. The Forum is an opportunity to showcase outstanding student research and encourage all undergraduates to participate in research as a value-added element of their education. This year more than 500 students presented their research in 11 categories making this the largest and most competitive Denman Forum ever. Results may be viewed online at http://ugresearch.adm.ohio-state.edu/2009denmanwinners.htm.

3rd Annual BHLC Case Competition

On April 28, students participated in the 3rd Annual BHLC Case Study Competition with a business case provided by Whirlpool Corporation, the sponsor company for the program. Students had 3 days to analyze the case and come up with their solutions. Whirlpool representatives acted as judges during the competition and were amazed by the quality of the content of the case analyses by each team. All of the students are to be commended for an excellent job! The members of the winning team were: Emily Edwards, Carl Ghandhi, Grace Kozan, Andy Smith, and Rusty Wilson. Congratulations to members of the 2008-2009 Business Honors Learning Community!

Undergraduate Business Programs
120 Schoenbaum Hall
210 W. Woodruff Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1144
(614) 292-2715
fisherundergrad@cob.osu.edu