By Greta Gould | Reporter
A team Baylor students were named a regional champion in Deloitte’s Audit Innovation Campus Challenge held last semester in Houston. This semester, they will compete on the national level in April. The Baylor team consisted of six students: sophomores Anna Joy Seeger, Wyatt Fogle and Matthew Letendre, juniors Katie Graeff and Cameron Pino, and senior Cory Davis.
Dr. Owen Brown, assistant professor of accounting, served as the faculty advisor and supervisor of the team.
The teams competing were given the opportunity to respond to a “Challenge Statement” given by Deloitte. Dr. Brown said that it required them to consider how cutting-edge technologies and processes can be applied to a real-world business issue.
The team was able to present a 15-minute argument and participate in a 15-minute question and answer session in front of a panel of Deloitte judges, according to Dr. Brown. The team was given five weeks to prepare their presentation for the panel of judges.
After two rounds, the Baylor team was announced as being one of two regional winners. The Baylor team went up against teams from eight other universities located in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Glendale, Ariz. junior Christina Bottenfield competed in the Deloitte competition in Fall 2016. Her team won runner up regionally while competing in Atlanta. Bottenfield joined the team in 2016 after it was recommended by her professor at the time, Dr. Bill Thomas. This was the first team to compete for Baylor University.
“The competition is what made me realize how much of everyday life accounting touched and is what made me decide I wanted to major in it,” Bottenfield said.
According to the business school website, students will go on to compete at the national level on April 5 and 6 at the Deloitte University campus in Westlake. The winners will win a cash prize of $10,000 for Baylor and $2,000 per student for first place, $5,000 for the school and $1,000 per student for second place and $2,500 for the school and $500 per student for third, the website said.
The Deloitte Audit Innovation Campus Challenge is hosted by the Deloitte Foundation, an organization who “supports education through initiatives benefiting middle/high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and educators that help develop future talent and promote excellence in teaching, research, and curriculum innovation,” their website said.
