From Chris Schulze, BBA Student, Careers Director, Undergraduate Business Council

I was lucky enough to be one of committee members that helped plan the McCombs International Business Challenge (MIBC) in October 2009, a student-run international case competition. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my college career, because I was able to interact with 80 students from all different parts of the world. There were teams from Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil, Scotland, Netherlands, Canada and many other places. Before the professional aspect of the competition commenced, we were able to become friends with many of these participants, and I stay in touch with a few of them to this day.

We also planned the entire case competition, which was sponsored by Motorola that year. They presented a case about improving their Global Smartphone Strategy, and the teams had 48 hours to research and develop a solution for presentation. I was blown away by the detail and creativity in the solutions from all the teams, and the judges were as well. The Motorola judges stated some of the solutions were “boardroom quality work” worthy of implementation in practice. These case competitions allow the students to apply all the knowledge they learn in the classroom to a real-life situation and can be crucial to the overall college education of a student.

Unfortunately, MIBC 2010 was scheduled to occur two weeks ago (October 16) but had to be cancelled due to due to the current economic constraints. We hope that in the future this is something we can bring back. We need all the support we can get, especially from our alumni. 

So how can you help? Last year the BBA Alumni Endowed Excellence Fund was created to support student run initiatives just like this. This fund is only $12,000 short of being able to start awarding funds. With your donation, we can ensure that these types of programs can bring exposure to the McCombs School, which helps add to our growing international prestige. Please visit the MIBC website for more information about the competition, previous cases and past participants, but most importantly, please visit this link and help make a difference.

This article originally appeared on November 18, 2010.