Business Team wins regioals, to compete in nationals

By LILIANA GARCIA

After the Fresno State business team won the regional Human Resources Games, the Craig School of Business at Fresno State can now look forward to the national competition.

The Fresno State team beat seven other teams in the event, put on by the Society of Human Resource Manage-ment, April 15 and 16 at Sacramento State.

The universities in the competition included Central Washington University, Montana State University, the University of Hawaii and the University of Nevada.

The Craig School of Business team that took first place consisted of Kathy Copeland, Ellen Dias and Ethan Feist.

The school also captured second place with the team of Leslie Gee, Liwpho Sacchao, and Amy Van Dyk.
The advisers to the teams are professors Diane Decker, Rudy Sanchez and Julie Olson-Buchanan.

“The networking that I did and knowledge I attained were a great experience,” Gee said.

A “Jeopardy”-style format tested the competing students’ knowledge in all areas of management practices, employee selection, labor and employee relations, compensation and benefits, training and development, and safety and health. The competition was based on the Professionals in Human Resources exam given by the Society for Human Resource Management.

The team will compete for the national title June 19 and 20 in San Diego.

Fresno State will go head to head against the other four regional champions, North Carolina State University, Pennsylvania State University, Southwest Minnesota State University, and Utah State University.

Last year, Fresno State teams came in second and fifth in the regional competition and they were able to compete in the national championships. It was the first year that the top five teams were able to proceed to compete in the national championships. In 2001, Fresno State captured the national championship and was second in the nation in 2000.

About 13,000 professionals will attend the national competition, Decker said.

Decker said she feels good about the competition.

“It’s a wonderful way to network,” Decker said. “The team has been practicing a lot.”