Final Four

While the NCAA saw Villanova pull out a dramatic, close victory, while UConn won in dominating and decisive fashion in this year's men's and women's Final Four championships, respectively, the HCAD program at Trinity University is celebrating its own "final four" achievement this week.  Perhaps not quite the same "final four" that most people would think of, but we are celebrating the fact that Trinity University HCAD graduate students have reached the finals of the past four major case competitions we've competed in during the year.  It's quite an accomplishment, and one that speaks highly of the quality of our students, their preparation, and their dedication and work ethic.

Beginning last October, a team of three students - Shawntae Batiste, Christina Roscoe, and Elle VanConia - participated in the 20th annual NAHSE Everett V. Fox Student Case Competition in New Orleans, Louisiana, and they reached the finals, taking 3rd place overall (and also earning the most votes for the Viewer's Choice Award and the Out of the Box Award).  This was the third straight year that a team from Trinity University reached the finals of NAHSE's Student Case Competition.

Then, shortly afterwards, another team of students - Justin Brewer, Hugh Jackson, and Aashini Patel - traveled to Waco, Texas to compete in the inaugural Robbins Case Competition in Healthcare Management, hosted by the Robbins Institute for Health Policy and Leadership at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business.  This case competition focused health care management with a distinct financial emphasis, and with an abbreviated time frame (teams were given just one full day to develop their case on-site before presentations began the next day), it provided unique challenges to participating students.  The competition invited teams from nine prestigious programs across the country, and we were thrilled to see our team not only reach the finals, but to also win the competition!  To add icing on the cake, Justin Brewer also brought home the prize for Best Presenter.

As our second-year students departed for their residencies at the beginning of 2016, we looked forward to our first-year students participating in two additional case competitions and benefiting from the tremendous learning experiences they provide.  For the first time, our program elected to send a team of first-year students (having just finished their first semester) to the 10th Annual UAB Health Administration Case Competition, perhaps the most widely recognized case competition in the country.  We recognized that teams of second-year students who had just started their residencies were not realistically able to fully enjoy the case competition due to the rigors of the administrative residency experience, and we found that our first-year students were more than up for the challenge.  Team members Jamie Merriam, Chris Munton, and Andrew Zenger made us extremely proud as they developed a strategy that saw them reach the finals of the competition, holding their own against teams of students from other programs that were finishing their final semester of their programs.  Although we were pleased with their efforts regardless of the outcome, we were thrilled that the Trinity team was able to emerge as one of six finalists out of a competitive field of 39 teams from prestigious programs across the country.

Finally, today we said farewell to three teams of first-year students who have been selected as finalists to compete in the 3rd Annual Cleveland Clinic Case Competition.  Unlike any other case competition we are familiar with, Cleveland Clinic's case competition challenged students in mid-February to craft a strategy for Cleveland Clinic to enter the London market, with students developing their case submissions over an intense three-day period before submitting them electronically.  With over 180 students from 27 different master's programs across the country competing in the previous year's Cleveland Clinic Case Competition, we knew the competition would be fierce, but in March we learned that 3 of the 16 teams selected to compete on-site in Cleveland as finalists in April would be representing Trinity University!  So, this morning three teams departed San Antonio and tomorrow will be presenting their recommendations to a team of executives at Cleveland Clinic: Judith Brown, Jackson Bush, Mark Gorham, and Christina Majdalani; Jose Echavarria, Natalie Kelly, and Jonathan Ward; and, Madelin Camp, Taylor Moen, Eric Sarette, and Shawna Truitt.  We are extremely proud of their efforts and looking forward to hearing about their incredible opportunity to visit Cleveland Clinic and present in front of its leadership.

With our own "final four" achievements in recent case competitions, we are finding much reason to celebrate our wonderful students at Trinity University's HCAD graduate program.  Congrats to our outstanding teams!