Thomas College students win big in national business competition

Courtesy / Thomas College The Thomas College team of Kerri Abbot, Kaitlyn Rourke, Amanda Landry, Alyssa Joubert and Emma Dimock, led by faculty advisor Rick Saucier, won multiple awards in the Society for the Advancement of Management conference's Open Division competition in Orlando, Fla., this weekend.

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By Staff

Thomas College students won top awards at the Society for the Advancement for Management Conference in Orlando, Fla., this weekend.

The society, founded in 1912, is the oldest business organization in the United States devoted to developing and promoting new management ideas.

The Thomas College team — Kerri Abbot, of Starks; Kaitlyn Rourke, of Lewiston; Amanda Landry, of Madison; Alyssa Joubert, of Methuen, Mass.; and Emma Dimock, of Madison — won multiple awards in SAM’s open division consisting of both undergraduate and graduate students from across the country.

The Thomas College team placed first in the “case study” competition in which they were responsible for analyzing the current business situation faced by the Hard Rock Café and then presenting their recommendations for the company to move forward. The team also placed first in the “Knowledge Bowl” and second for overall recognition among the business programs at the conference. The team competed against other major business programs from colleges like Florida State University and the New England Institute of Technology.

“Our student team showed that Thomas College provides an education that allows our students to compete with anyone in the country,” Rick Saucier, professor of marketing at Thomas College and the team’s advisor. “The team members thoroughly impressed the judges of the national competitions and the professional members who attended the conference.”

The team’s travel funding was supported by the Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation at Thomas College.

About Thomas College

Celebrating its 125th anniversary, Thomas College is located in Waterville and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in programs ranging from business, entrepreneurship, and technology, to education, criminal justice, and psychology. Its “guaranteed job program,” the first of its kind in the nation, is built on students’ academic, career and leadership preparation. Thomas is also home to the Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation and the Center for Innovation in Education. In 2017, Money Magazine ranked Thomas 23rd of all colleges and universities in the country for adding the most value to its degrees, and data reported by the New York Times ranks Thomas in the top 15% of all higher education institutions in the United States. for upward mobility of its graduates.