School of Business Students Take First Place in IIA/PICPA Case Competition

On November 5, a team of RMU accounting students (Amanda Choma, Michael McCoy, and Danielle Silofau) competed and won first place in a case competition organized by the Pittsburgh Chapter of two prominent professional accounting organizations: IIA (The Institute of Internal Auditors) and PICPA (Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs). The Case Competition is an interactive, educational, collaborative event that challenges students to work with their peers to analyze data, develop ideas, and communicate their findings. Students had to thoroughly analyze the case, construct a flowchart that explains the business process, identify weaknesses in the business scenario, and propose solutions and controls to address the problems. There are two rounds of competition: in the first round student teams submitted their report and the teams with the best reports were advanced to the second round where the student teams were invited to do a live presentation in front of the panel of judges. This year there were 19 undergraduate student teams from University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, Chatham University and Robert Morris University registered for this competition. Eight of the 19 teams advanced to the second round and the RMU School of Business team won first place and were awarded a $1,000 scholarship.