Twenty-two teams from southern Colorado colleges and universities competed on UCCS campus for the 14th annual UCCS Ethics Case Competition on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

Seventy-two students competed this year from Adams State University, CSU-Pueblo, Fort Lewis College, Lamar Community College, Odyssey Early College & Career Options, Otero College, Pikes Peak State College, UCCS, United State Air Force Academy, and Western Colorado University. Teams were supported by fifteen faculty advisors.

The judges were impressed with the level of participation and student commitment for the case competition. Student teams served as consultants in ethical culture to address issues within a defense industry technology company. All teams demonstrated an understanding of principle-based ethics and how to apply ethical decision-making in a business decision – something employers will notice!

We’d like to extend special appreciation for the time all judges took to understand the case and perform the challenging task of choosing the winners of each track. This year’s judges included:

• Debra Fortenberry, Senior Counsel at Fortenberry Law Group P.C.
• Delaney Gust, Senior Tax Accountant – Stockman Kast Ryan & Co.
• Jacque Jewell, Financial Advisor for FedEx
• Marjorie Noleen, Market Growth Manager, Southeast United Healthcare
• Michaela Petti, Realtor, Keller Williams Realty
• Kathy Shupp, Human Resources Manager, Pikes Peak Regional Building Department
• Jot Singh, Attorney at Law, Fortenberry Law Group P.C.
• Otto Sunday, USAF Air Battle Manager | CMU-Tepper MBA ’25 | LunaCap, Toigo, Consortium & MLT Fellow, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Matthew Whitaker, CEO, Image Owl, Inc.
• Anthony B. Wilson Lieutenant Colonel (Ret), United States Space Command

During the awards ceremony, UCCS College of Business Dean Aicher joined to celebrate the excellence of all teams, and congratulate the 2024 case competition winners:

2024 Winning Teams

Undergraduate 2-Year Track

• 1^st Place: Otero College:  Jansen Ediger, Brittany Ferguson, Priscilla Padilla
  • Faculty Advisors: Caitlyn Diekmann and Joseph Eubanks
• 2^nd Place: Pikes Peak State College: Rylee Dextras, Dawson Rowbotham
  • Faculty Advisor: Monica Novack
• 3^rd Place: Pikes Peak State College: Lauren Singleton, Jesper Sandeen, Aidan Smith
  • Faculty Advisor: Monica Novack

Undergraduate 4-Year Track

• 1st Place: Western Colorado University: Kareena Hoover, Emma Wilke
  • Faculty Advisor: Michael Vieregge
• 2nd Place: U.S. Air Force Academy: Samuel Bodily, Davis Nicolas, Cody Gross
  • Faculty Advisor: Scott Heyler and Tyler Ledford
• 3rd Place: U.S. Air Force Academy: Ethan Andrews, Lauren Arnold, Bridge Bach, Mark Tang
  • Faculty Advisor: Scott Heyler and Tyler Ledford

Special thanks to Ethics Initiative Assistant Christopher Vinci for working to make the competition enjoyable for all. We appreciated the student volunteer room monitors and registration, including Taliyah Murphy, Monica Furey, Bill Craighead, Aspyn Zuccone, and Danielle Marcojos. The UCCS Event Services, catering, and building staff supported the day with good food, room preparation, and room presentation equipment.

We could not have a competition at this level without the participation of the UCCS teams and Southern Colorado schools! Congratulations again to all the teams and faculty advisors for a job well done.

About the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at UCCS College of Business is a resource for principle-based ethics education, serving students, educators and business community. The UCCS College of Business is one of eight original participating schools in the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program that now includes twelve participating schools. The DFEI supports the Southern Colorado Ethics Consortium (SCEC) for nine higher education institutions in the southern half of the state. In 2016, the DFEI Collegiate Program at UCCS launched an ethics champion pilot program to expand best practices in ethics education. Each participating school has educators serving as Ethics Champions on their campus to expand principle-based ethics education and resources throughout southern Colorado. The program has since expanded to include a large variety of events and programs for educators, students and business members throughout southern Colorado. Find more information online.

About the College of Business

The UCCS College of Business was established in 1965 and has more than 1,300 undergraduates and 350 MBA and distance MBA students. The College of Business and Administration awards the Bachelor of Science in Business and Bachelor of Innovation degrees. The Graduate School of Business Administration awards the Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Accounting and Executive Doctor of Business Administration degrees. More than 10,000 alumni of the College of Business live and work around the world. For more information, visit  uccs.edu/business.