Courtesy of the Grand Lake Business Journal
Miami, Okla. – The small business division team known as “Revolutionary Transportation” from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) recently received an invitation to compete at the Governor’s Cup Team competition in Oklahoma City on April 12th and 13th. This is a state-wide competition that engages students in a “real world” simulation of gathering data, researching facts, and building a business plan.
This is the first year NEO has competed in the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup competition.
The competition is judged by business professionals from around the state. All two-year and four-year non-research schools are allowed to enter a team in the small business division. This has been an ongoing process for NEO’s business team that started at the beginning of the semester.
The students were selected based on several criteria, including grade point average and more.
“Our team has been meeting for eight weeks and submitted our business plan online in early March,” said Scott Donaldson, NEO faculty and sponsor. “We were notified that we made the semi-finals (top eight) on March 22nd. We now have until April 8th to make any necessary changes and resubmit.”
By making the semi-finals, the students are automatically invited to OKC to submit their business plan orally to a panel of judges. The semi-finals will take place on Friday, April 12th. The top six schools will be invited to present to another panel of judges in the final round on Saturday, April 13th. Cash prizes will be awarded to all teams making the finals.
First, second, and third place teams receive a substantial cash award.
Donaldson said, “At NEO A&M College, we take our students’ education very seriously, and the Governor’s Cup Competition is just another way that NEO A&M College can offer its business and technology students a substantially higher quality of education. This is not just a competition to these students, it is experience doing things that they may find themselves doing in their real lives, and that type of education is priceless.”
Team Members include: Stephanie Asher, a sophomore majoring in applied business and accounting, Karlee Gibson, a sophomore majoring in business management and marketing, Belinda Hunt, a sophomore majoring in business administration and accounting, and Robert Woods, a sophomore majoring in business and accounting.
The semi-finals and finals are modeled similar to the hit television series “Shark Tank,” where individuals and teams are given a chance to submit business ideas to real investors in hopes that the investors will see promise in their business idea and agree to finance it. See the following link: http://abc.go.com/watch/shark-tank/SH559076/VD55238335/week-5 Link to Governor’s Cup: http://www.i2e.org/gov-cup-news/small-business-division-semifinalists/
Click here to read the article at the Grand Lake Business Journal.com
