Student competitions in academic areas bring victory

In April, North Central sent a team of students to represent the College at the American Marketing Association (AMA) International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans. Marketing majors Jimmy Bright ’19, Lucas Carr ’19, Julia Pachla ‘19, Laura Ringo ’19 and Anna White ’18 brought home a third-place finish in the case competition.

A case competition helps students learn about marketing, brand management and consulting. They use consumer data to put together a plan for solving a real-world marketing challenge and then pitch that plan to industry executives.

The students were encouraged to aim high and take risks from the very start. “This year, the team created an integrated marketing communications plan for the Wall Street Journal aimed at students,” Pachla said. “The theme of the conference was ‘Market Ambitiously.’”

After their success at the AMA conference, the students presented their work at the Rall Symposium for Undergraduate Research in May.

Also in April, political science major Kevin Conne ’19 went to New York City for the National Model United Nations (NMUN) Conference. He received an award for Outstanding Position Paper for the General Assembly First Committee.

According to NMUN guidelines, each position paper written for the competition is meant to clearly represent the views and planned actions for the writer’s assigned country or non-governmental organization.

Conne and his team were representing Iraq in the scenario for the competition, and his paper covered three topics: communication development as it relates to international security, nuclear disarmament, and international cooperation in the peaceful exploration of outer space. He called for the nations of the world to “secure the Internet from terrorists and terrorist sympathizers in order to allow for a more stable and peaceful world,” and to “work together as a global community to secure and eliminate (nuclear and unconventional) weapons.” He advocated “that space shall be preserved for scientific discovery and not be used as a new frontier for human conflict.”

Creativity and originality lead to high honors in student competitions

The North Central College forensics team in April capped another outstanding season after banner weekends at both the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) and the National Forensics Association (NFA) tournament.

Norah Flaherty ’19 and Gabbi Gruver ’19 were named All-Americans at the AFA-NIET. The All-American Team has only 13 members, and selection is based on excellence in forensic competition, academic success and community service. The University of Nebraska-Omaha was the only other school with two All-Americans.

North Central finished in the top 20 in the nation at the tournament.

At the NFA tournament, the team was once again in the top 20 overall and powered to an eighth-place finish in President’s Division One. Leading the charge was Leslie Nuñez ’19, who was a national champion in the novice divisions of both prose reading and dramatic interpretation, and Christopher Grady ’22, who won a novice national title in the program oral interpretation event.

North Central had two more top-three finishers in novice events, two varsity quarterfinal finishes by Flaherty, and a total of four varsity octafinalists.

In May, Alyssa Kinzel ’19 was recognized as one of six finalists for the 2019 New American Colleges & Universities (NAC&U) Award for Student Excellence. She submitted an essay for the competition called “Contrasting House Museums and Comprehensive Museums in Paris,” which she also presented at the Rall Symposium.

Kinzel received a prestigious Richter Grant to continue her research.