Contact Us

Institutional Communications
Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-2929
Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu


Find us on Facebook (Link opens a new window) Find us on Twitter (Link opens a new window)


UW College of Business Student Wins National Competition

woman and man outside, holding a plaque
Ecaterina “Kate” Botten, a UW senior accounting major from Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova, placed first in the 2019 Project Run With It competition. The annual competition furthers the community service component of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP), an international honor organization for financial information students and professionals. Also pictured is Preston Mackey, a UW senior accounting major from Gillette and president of UW’s BAP chapter. (UW Photo)

Ecaterina “Kate” Botten, a senior accounting major in the University of Wyoming’s College of Business, placed first in the 2019 Project Run With It competition.

Project Run With It is an annual competition that furthers the community service component of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP), an international honor organization for financial information students and professionals. The competition provides members/candidates with an opportunity to engage in a real-world consulting project.

“Beta Alpha Psi is known not only across the nation, but also abroad. It is a great organization where students can grow and show their leadership qualities. We love to see students grow and enjoy this process,” says Botten, from Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova. “We have fun meetings where we learn new skills, talk about the career opportunities accounting and finance majors have, and just make great friends.”

The competition involved up to 96 BAP student representatives who worked together during the annual meeting to develop solutions to real-life business problems of actual not-for-profit (NFP) organizations located in the greater Chicago area.

Botten’s winning pitch to the nonprofit organization Prevent Blindness presented a software solution that will meet the organization’s basic needs without requiring extensive and expensive training, and also will meet its annual budget.

“When I heard our team name announced from the award ceremony stage, I was shocked and had to look again at my name badge to make sure they had really called our team,” Botten says. “My team had no expectations going into the nomination ceremony. We had our fingers crossed and hoped for it. We all were extremely happy and proud of our work.”

Working in teams of four, students had the equivalent of one and a half working days to develop a formal presentation showcasing their solution to the business issues presented by the NFPs in their request for proposal for consulting services.

“I met my team, which was randomly assigned, on the first day of the event. My team was made up of students from Pace University, Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Arkansas,” Botten says. “I am a very social person, and I love these types of events because they give you a great opportunity to communicate with students and faculty from different universities who have similar interests in school. We share ideas and information about our Beta Alpha Psi chapters and make new friends.”

Botten’s award includes a plaque as well as $1,000 for the BAP chapter at UW. 

“The award money will help us with recruiting students from accounting and finance majors to join our team,” Botten says. “Beta Alpha Psi offers great networking opportunities to interact with faculty, students and employers. We organize two events annually: Meet the Firms, the career fair for accounting and finance majors, and Beat the Firms, a golf tournament where students and employers can interact in a more casual style. We love when students actively participate in these events, and the prize money will help us in organizing them in the best way possible.”

For more information about Beta Alpha Psi, email Mac Festa, the UW chapter’s adviser, at mfesta@uwyo.edu.

 

 

 

Contact Us

Institutional Communications
Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-2929
Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu


Find us on Facebook (Link opens a new window) Find us on Twitter (Link opens a new window)